Sword Art Overline
by L33t Horo
Summary: Kayaba Akihiko made a mistake... he imprisoned the one person who could overturn him... SAO was not a place for him to be a god... it was the place to birth and nurture one... and he would grow to become one
1. Chapter 1

Sword Art Overline

Chapter 1: Birth of a (digital) God

He really did not know what to do… he decided that for his birthday he would ask his parents for a Nervegear.

He knew his family was not in a good financial position, but he hoped that with all the good grades he had, they would make an effort for it.

He did not ask for anything last Xmas for exactly this reason.

He was pleasantly surprised when on his birthday he received a Nervegear, it was wrapped on a brown paper but he did not care, he thanked both his parents for the gift.

He went into his room and plugged everything in, it was Friday so he had all weekend to enjoy this new game.

Sword Art Online, a VRMMORPG, first of its kind too, it offered full sensorial experience.

He then went to the options menu and calibrated his system.

After he calibrated it he went to the bathroom and had a snack, he wouldn't be able to move in the real world while inside the game.

"Link start"

He went into the game and created his character… he smirked.

While he was not a Beta tester he was able be to move around just as well if not better than them for a single reason.

He had an ability on the real world that translated over… or rather this world made his abilities bloom.

Technokinesis, the ability to interact and control technology with his mind.

In his case he could even see and interact with code and script, now that he was essentially inside a video game, his abilities gave him a bigger edge than the beta testers, in here he could control his body even better than in the real world.

Still, his abilities had never been properly trained, he would hack an ATM machine and pick up a couple thousand Yens and leave it on his father's desk and keep a few bills for himself, but he had little to no knowledge of scripting.

While he could 'see' the code for everything he just was not able to interact with it, yet… if he did he was sure he could cause an instability to the system.

He decided to seek people who knew more about coding and scripting, in a game like this there are sure to be a fair few.

As he walked into town he saw many players walk about and greet each other, some moved jerkily and awkwardly and some a bit more natural, and a few walked as normal.

Their code was uniform, just a few things different such as hair style and eye color and the like… Oh and skin color. Other than that their codes where the same.

He decided to turn off that ability, it gave him a bit if a headache.

He bumped into a character on the street.

"Oh… sorry" he apologized.

"My bad I did not see where I was going" the other player said.

This player had dark blue hair, a blue shirt and brown boots and a brown starter armor.

The way he moved… he had to be in beta.

"Hey… the way you move… you must be a beta player right?" another asked.

It was an older man with a dark magenta hair and a stubble… he reminded me a bit of that movie pirate of the Caribbean motif going on.

"Sorry to bother you but could you perhaps help me out? I am still unsure about the controls" he pleaded.

He accepted and took them to the field outside the town.

"Gah!" Klein shouted as a pig hit him and threw him back a couple of feet.

"Man talk about sad" the player said.

"Well tell me how to do it" the magenta haired player said.

The player grabbed a pebble and then attacked the pig.

The pig agro was now on him.

"Okay this is how you do to use your sword skills… first get into a stance, the system assist will help you with it, then wait for the skill to charge and then we you feel the 'coil' set…" he said as his sword glowed red.

Slash

He dashed forth and sliced the pig.

"and you let go… is super easy" he said.

"Oh… thanks… let me try" he said as he tried and managed to pull 3 of them in a row.

"That's great… you teach better than those tutorial NPCs" he said. "By the way… my name is Klein" he introduced himself.

"Mine is Kirito" the other said.

"I am Ainz" the other said.

Ainz turned his ability on and stared at Kirito… he had some extra data code that a only a few so far had… so he was a beta indeed.

"Well I got to go… I ordered a pizza so it should be arriving right about. ..now" he said.

He then scrolled on his menu and had a puzzled face.

"Hey… total noob question, where is the exit menu?" he asked.

"It's right… Here?" Kirito said, finding nothing.

"Oh thanks player's guide" Klein said sarcastically.

"No… it's here it's just… disabled?" Ainz said.

"Okay, so I will just pull the Nervegear off like...so" he said as his avatar tried to pull an imaginary headgear.

"it doesn't work that way. Your body's bioelectrical signals are all routed to the Nervegear so you can't move in real life" Kirito said "Don't you remember the videos of the alpha testers?" he then sighed "So many lawsuits"

Ainz was feeling nervous, this was not an error at least that is what a gut feeling told him.

"Well how am I supposed to exit then? Is not like I can Alt F4 this shit" Klein said.

"We should PM the GM… they should solve this easily" Kirito said "Maybe is a bug"

It was when the bells rang.

A second later they were all transported back to the Town of Beginnings.

"what's going on?"

"Maybe a launch day event?"

The new trio got teleported next to each other and begun to observe.

The area had been closed off, no one could leave the defined area.

Ainz turned his ability on and began looking around… there was a lot of data packages incoming.

It was then when the sky tore open and a blood-like substance begun to ooze out.

Panels marking Danger appeared as a humanoid figure emerged.

"Players of SAO… my name is Kayaba Akihiko, creator of Sword Art Online, many of you have found your log off button non operational… I would like to assure you that **that is not an error nor a bug** but a feature of this game" the entity called Kayaba said.

It was a mass of data and it was heavily encrypted… if Ainz knew more about hacking and the tools needed he could probably do something, but because of his lack of knowledge in that area he could only analyze the data on this entity.

There was something… off about it, but passed it off as being part of an administrator avatar.

"You are all trapped in my world, You cannot log yourselves out of SAO, and no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the "NerveGear" from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."

"You mean you essentially want us to finish an MMO?" a player asked incredulously.

"Indeed"

"FUCK YOU!" The player said.

"it seems there is some resistance… not appreciating the hostility either" Kayaba said.

"when was the last time you heard of someone beating Everquest" the player said.

"When was the last time you heard of anyone PLAYING Everquest?" Kayaba countered.

"That's fair" the player replied.

"Hey… is what this guy saying true?" Klein asked worried to Kirito.

"He's not. The transmitter's signals in the headgear work just like microwaves.  
If the safety's disabled, it could fry your brain." Kirito said.

Ainz was worried, would his parents do this? Take the Nervegear off? He could theoretically disable such a thing, but because it could go off and was a delicate thing he was hesitant to do anything.

"Despite my warning, the families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the NerveGear, an unfortunate decision, to say the least. As a result, the game now has two hundred thirteen less players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world." Kayaba said.

Ainz curled his hands into a fist.

This man thought himself a freaking god.

Kayaba then made a lot of screens appear. "As you can see, international media outlets have round-the-clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game. It's important to remember the following:  
There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game.  
If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system... forever.  
And the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain.  
There is only one way for a player to escape now - you must clear the game.  
Right now, you're gathered on Floor One, the lowest level of Aincrad.  
If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor.  
Defeat the boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game." he said grandiosely.

All the players were scared and freaking out, trying to negate this reality.

It was impossible, many players agreed, even beta players never made it that far… and with no resurrection at all?

"Last but not least, I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player. Please have a look." Kayaba said.

Every player open their inventory and a small mirror dropped into their hands.

The mirror then glowed.

Ainz noticed that the data of the characters around had been rewritten.

"Klein?!" A boy that was Kirito said.

"Kirito?" Klein said "You look so young"

"and you look less hairy… ballz" Ainz said.

They noticed Ainz next to them, his body had shrug noticeable, he was a preteen 10… maybe 12 years old, he was rather small looking just a bit on the androgenous side.

He was sporting a shock of ashen white hair and molten gold eyes.

Kirito looked like a boyish version of his avatar, as for Klein.

"You kinda look like a thug man" Ainz said with a smirk.

"Hey… respect your elders" Klein said.

"Sorry… ojii-san" Ainz said with a smirk.

"I walked into that one" he muttered.

"But, how?" Klein asked wanting to know how their avatars had changed to look into their real life appearances.

"If it was with that… yeah… that would make sense" Ainz said.

"Oh? You figured it out already?" Kirito said.

"yeah, when calibrating the gear it made you pat yourself and do a lot of movements, that way your perspective would adjust in game but it also picked up other things due to how strong it is, I am surprised it even got my hair and eye color too" Ainz said.

Ainz suspected that the power could be turned even higher to get a more thorough reading but that would come with consequences.

A brain is a delicate thing, while it could function like a super computer it is still organic and thus more susceptible to outside factors and a lower endurance than that of an actual machine.

There is just so much data that could be theoretically extracted via this way. Exceeding the limit would put a person in risk.

Every player was shocked to see their avatar change and to be honest Ainz had to stifle his laughter when he saw a LOT of female players turn into guys who were now in drag.

"Right now, you are probably wondering why. Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do this? Ultimately, my goal was a simple one. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my design." he said.

Kirito growled "Kayaba"

Ainz knew something tough, Kayaba could not be the god of this place.

" _no… I will usurp that place and free the players. With my ability I can see areas not accessible to normal players and also would be able to manipulate the data. Although my skills are lacking, I need to find someone who can teach me more about programing, coding and hacking_ " Ainz thought.

He was able to interrupt motions of minor monsters, as their data was not complex and could manipulate it as he managed to make a boar stumble on his charge and took the opportunity to finish it off.

Best thing would be to level up, but how to effectively level up?

People would be swarming areas with monsters to grind and mobs spawned at a designated rate, in other words players would kill more monsters than their ability to respawn, leaving many other players unable to grind.

" _Wait, this game was basically a revised version of the beta… if my knowledge about games is correct, many games would have a 'Secret room' to test features, patches and the like. Should I look for archaic codes in the data stream or maybe fool the system that governs the game to flag the location for me? No… that would be risky, the system might delete it and that would be a waste. The goal is to go_ _ **up**_ _, so that means he doesn't want us to go down, going by that logic that's where I will start looking, however that would seem suspicious, I also would need to help on clearing floors_ " Ainz thought as he devised a plan of action.

"As you can see, I have achieved my goal.  
This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online.  
Players, I wish you the best of luck." he said as his body dissolved and turned into smoke.

Everyone was freaking out… some of them were just having a mental breakdown.

This was reality now.

"You two… we need to move now" Kirito said as he urged both to move.

They went to the exit of the town.

"Okay, listen. I'm heading out right now for the next village. I want you two to come." Kirito said.

"Are you saying what I think you are saying?" Ainz said.

"Yes. If what he said is true, and I think it is, the only way we're gonna survive in here is by making ourselves as strong as possible. In an MMORPG, the money you can earn... the EXP, once the game starts up, there's only so much of that stuff to go around. Look, the fields around the Town of Beginnings are gonna be hunted clean soon. If we head to the next village now, we'll have an easier time collecting cash and points. Don't worry, I know all the paths and places we should avoid. Even if I'm level one, I can get there easy." Kirito said.

Ainz decided to go with him. it would be beneficial to power up while looking for clues of that secret room if one existed, plus he was a former beta player and coukd teach him about places that others might not know and quests for good loot.

"Thanks, but... you know those friends of mine I was telling you about? we stood in line for a whole night to buy this, and  
They're back at the Plaza somewhere and I can't leave 'em." Klein said.

"Monkeys and typewriters" Ainz said.

Klein glared at him but sighed.

It was then when Kirito and Ainz would party up and set forth to the next town.

This was the start of their new life in SAO.

Chapter end 


	2. Chapter 2

Sword Art Overline

Chapter 2: about leveling up.

Ainz woke up early.

He and Kirito had taken leave to the next town over and managed to reach there relatively unharmed, they had to fight a few monsters and a particularly large mob, but they arrived safe and sound.

They also leveled up twice, meaning that they were on level 3 now.

Ainz was unsure what he should focus on.

He had to 'build' his statistics towards his gameplay style, but it was too early into the game to do so.

He decided to keep his stats as is until level 5.

Kirito approved of the idea, it would be terrible if you made a character into a 'tank' role when you play as a DPS.

They managed to get some quests and did them so separately to reap the whole reward, once one finished the quest the other would do it and so on.

They amassed quite a haul of Col, the in game currency, and thus decided to upgrade their gear.

The weapons and armor in this town were somewhat lacking in stats so they decided to forego of them and concentrate on grinding both EXP and materials for upgrading their gear.

Why you ask? Simple game logic.

In an MMORPG weapons sold by NPCs are low tier and their stats are subpar, monster drops (very rare but happens) weapons and items and the weapons are of high quality, however, should a character ever find a way to craft weapons and armor, they could put in them stats to the liking of the paying customer. So long as a criteria is matched, meaning that you would need a fire metal to make an armor resistant to fire attacks and so on.

Also because once that happen, material prices would skyrocket due to the simple law of need and demand. If they could stockpile on mats, they could make a small fortune.

Also Ainz was actively looking for strange data around, trying to find a possible indicator of the existence of the 'Debug Room'.

Ainz had some luck on the programing department, it seems that Kirito has some knowledge and was competent enough in it too so while they adventures together he taught him everything he knew about coding.

"Still though, why do you want to learn this? Is not like it can help us out" Kirito said.

"I allways been interested on it, but people in RL never took me seriously. I am glad you know enough to teach me and was willing to help" Ainz said.

Now, because of his newfound knowledge Ainz could manipulate the data from monsters even more, while he could make them stumble and miss a que, he could now change the drop rate they had for items and increase the EXP rewards by half over.

This gave them an unfair advantage over the rest, but it was for the best.

If they wanted to be of help they needed to get very strong VERY fast.

He could also now alter player data somewhat, by changing certain parameters he could move around his stats around at will and, if he made physical contact with a player, he could ping them on his minimap.

"Hey Kirito, if you were a beta that means you know this floor's boss, what can you tell me about him?" Ainz asked.

Kirito sighed and took a deep breath.

"It's basically a huge Kobold… a Lord of Kobolds, if his attack pattern is the same he should have a shield and a axe on his first form, once he is on the red he would switch to a talwar. He would have some minions too, 3 to 4… it's just" he said with some doubts.

"You are not sure if it will hold true with the launch title" Ainz finished.

"That's right, hey… you are pretty smart for a kid" Kirito said.

"I am a sophmore in high school you know" Ainz said with a smirk.

"Okay… wow… anyways we should do this quest next, it has a good Col reward and potions as well" Kirito said. " _High school? Second year? I am in middle school second year?!_ "

And so we continued on and as we adventured he kept teaching me more about programing.

It was on our 3rd week when I decided to part ways.

"Hey Kirito, thanks a lot… but I need to find something I been looking for" Ainz said feeling a bit down.

"Oh? Why don't I come with?" Kirito said.

"Is a flagged quest. Apparently only I can do it because I reached a criteria for it and is only accessible to me" Ainz partially lied.

"I see… then let's make a promise to meet again when the boss room is found" Kirito said as he extended his arm.

They did a fist bump.

"Just add me as a friend...that way we can see if we are okay" Ainz said.

"Great idea, let me add you" Kirito said.

And so the 2 added their first friends.

Ainz took a path to a desolate area,it was creepy and foreboding and most of all it was weirdly made.

Not the spooky factor… no, what made it weird was the fact that even though there was an entrance there was a 'barrier' preventing access.

Ainz waited for 2 days before attempting to go in. He scanned around with his ability to search for player data around, his own way to bypass the 'Hide' skill, regardless of rank.

Once he was sure no one was here he attempted to enter.

( _Insert keygen username: admin, insert password: **********, protocol if username keygen and password match barrier open for flagged character_ )

During his two days waiting to see if anyone was there he analyzed the barrier's data and managed to piece together the info he needed to open it and flag himself as having authority to open it.

He entered the area.

It was not a debug room, no.

But it was something that could still help him.

It was a sector that deal with item management, where items are extracted from, their drop rate and the generator. the place that materialized the item for admins to study them and inspect their code and flag any potential errors and fix them and release them into the game. It was a shame it was not a weaponry data depository and testing ground, but this would do… he could literally have any mat he could ever need at his fingertips.

He stocked up all as many as he could from the levels yet to open.

He decided to go for the rare ones and got the max amount he could carry of each (99) as well as some medium rare materials as well.

He also found old data of potions that had a 50% health regen that were not like the regular ones in this floor that had HOT (Healing Over Time) parameters (meaning they healed a bit per second ontil the duration endes) and a few pots that boosted the defence and attack factors.

The last 2 were taken out of the official version but their data was still in the code.

That meant he could use them in the game, albeit sparingly.

It wouldn't do for the system to realize he had access to restricted items.

He decided to play a hunch he had.

Walking up to the virtual console he inserted the following

( _mapping option: restricted areas, Flag Debug function, Weapon testing grounds and Armor research, Sword Skill data_ )

A virtual map appeared on the console… so far there was only 25% compiled, but then he received a system alert warning.

He had been found out!

"FUCK FUCK FUCK" Ainz shouted as he copied the map data into his own and got data in the Boss of this floor.

He had 2 minutes before he was purged from this area.

He dashed out and closed the area with the admin key he managed to get from the barrier.

The barrier closed behind him. Thankfully the system did not manage to get him and the barrier had the same credentials as before.

He managed to save his little Col mine.

The mapping data he managed to get was incomplete, certain gaps of data existed due to forced disconnection from the console but he managed to find his next target.

"The area is a few days from here… I better go back to the Town, restock on items and set out to the next area.

It's too bad I can't tell anyone about this but I can sell the map data… I wonder if anyone would be interested on it? I would have to scrub the areas flagged in it tough" Ainz said to himself.

He bought some black bread and a few minor potions.

He decided to relax a bit.

It was when he meet her.

It was a small girl with dirty blond hair, she had whiskers marks on her face and was typing furiously on something while she ate a piece of bread.

"Hey onee-san… what are you doing?" Ainz asked.

He noticed the extra data on her character, it seemed she was a beta too.

"Hey… go away, I am busy" she said as she continued to type.

Ainz read some from behind her.

"Oh! That looks like it would be handy… uh? Map Data? You also collect that? Would you like some of mine?" Ainz asked.

"Eh? You have map data? You got any I don't have?" she asked without looking up.

"Yeah… I may be a kid but I still pull my weight around" he said.

She looked up to Ainz.

She was surprised to see a child so young doing exploring.

He was also very adorable looking.

"Hey nee-san… do you want it?" Ainz said with big puppy eyes.

The girl blushed "W-w-what?" she said.

"The Map Data nee-san… what did you think I was talking about?" Ainz asked innocently.

"Oh… Oh that, sure" she said as Ainz transferred his data to her.

"There are some gaps on the map data… how did that happen?" she asked.

"Does it matter? you can have it nee-san" he said.

"Okay… how much do you want for it?" she asked.

"Tell you what… how about you give me an IOU? Add me as a friend and tell me when they try to tackle the boss as well as any weird rumors" Ainz said.

"Uh? You sure? You don't want the Col?" she asked.

"I rather have a beautiful onee-san owe me one" he said with a sweet smile.

She cringed a bit " _This kid is good… he may grow up to be a player… and not in the gaming sense_ " she thought.

And so she added him.

"So… it's Argo-nee uh? Thank you… Take care Argo-nee." he said as he gave her a small peck on the cheek.

She blushed.

"Damn it… I am not supposed to feel like this… he is just a kid" Argo said as she covered her face with her hoodie.

He waved her goodbye as he rushed to continue finding new mapping data and killing monsters.

He then remembered something and contacted Argo via a PM.

"Argo-nee, I forgot.

If possible please see if you can find people who know about hacking, post it as a request. I will pay you after I see the results, just make sure they know their stuff, in a game like this a few of those people should be here" Ainz wrote on his message.

"Roger, this will cost you 800 Cols… I will charge you next time I see you" was her reply.

It has been 2 weeks and Ainz managed to procure a new data depository. This one was on all "current" sword skills and "hobby" skills.

He procured all the sword skills data and learned how they worked more intimately.

He could now tell how much damage would it do (depending on a specific value of a player's stats + weapon modifier) their cool down time as well as the speed of the skill and effective range.

He also saw a few skills from weapons that were no longer in the game, but whose data was present like on monsters.

"This gives me an idea" he said with a smirk.

After many attempts he now managed to increase the data he could change on his character, meaning he could effectively make himself into an NPC or Mob character by removing his player cursor that denominated him as a player in this game and turning it red, this would be helpful when having to navigate areas too high level for him.

It had come to his attention that there are some… shall we say… unsavory characters making inciting players to commit violence on others, while at a level of a (cruel) prank Ainz wondered if that was the case and not just the advent of worst to come.

What really bothered him was the other thing.

PS.

Player Suicide.

Many people had lost hope on being rescued, many, at the beginning, thought that the Jietai (Self defence Force) cyber division and the anti-terrorism division of the police would rescue them.

After nearly a month the lost all hope.

Many broken players just… just walked to the edge of the castle in the sky and just… just let themselves go into the void.

What hated Ainz was not their deaths… but something worst.

The look in their eyes.

Their eyes that seem dull and lifeless.

It seemed as he was seeing a person who was all but dead and just walking as a repeated action, a zombie if you will. The spark that humans had that showed their life and their hopes.

These players had none of that.

They were broken, just like Humpty Dumpty in the children's book.

But as people killed themselves and many suffered mental breakdowns he could feel something analyzing them.

Ainz looked around and saw streams of data flowing from the players to a unknown location of the system.

It must been a ghost subsystem.

An area not unlike the places he procured as secret bases to stock on free rare items and other things.

He had tried to get more mapping data from the console but the system had gotten smarter, it seems his clearance was not high enough or that he would need to develop a way to either counter the system trying to track him or a way to slow the system to increase his own time, or both! Both would be ideal.

But for that he needed to learn hacking and hacking techniques… techniques that he did not currently had.

For all the power he could have, Ainz was limited with his inexperience with it.

And thus Ainz continued his search of the "Debug Room".

It was near the end of the first month when he received a PM from Argo.

"Hey Ainz-bou, I heard about a rumor of a hidden log out place somewhere on this sector (see attached map data) I am not sure if it's legit or not but if you can try and find out if there is any credibility to it"

Ainz deadpanned " _that is so obviously a lie from someone, still better make sure that no one is harmed if it ends up being a trap_ " Ainz thought as he replied to Argo.

The place was in a forest a couple of hours away from where he was.

Thankfully the danger to him was now minimal, his level was on 19 and he put most of his stats on Strength, Agility and Vitality, but most on Agility.

It did not bother as he could rearrange them as he saw fit, but for the time being he would play a speed type damage dealer that concentrated on dodging and speed attacks with devastating results.

As of now he did not need to use his 'data tripping' technique anymore, he could kill a mob of 20 on his own in 10 seconds flat.

Not only that but thanks to his ability he could 'feel' when a monster was going to attack by seeing changes unto the data stream as well…

( _if object: player, present at distance = 2 feet start agro, if player attacks = damage over 20% call for object = ally, object = ally number = 5, attack sequence 4. If object: player positioned in x,y coordinates attack exposed area_ ) and so on and so forth until either the player won or the monsters did.

He headed for the forest on the west.

There were 3 player data around, 2 of them were familiar to him, he checked his friend list and minimap.

It was Argo and Kirito.

Then he felt the other data that was not a player.

It was a field-boss.

"Damn it… they won't make it on time" Ainz gritted his teeth.

( _object data: player player data = stats._

 _Stats Strength move to Agility_ )

And then his speed increased by 1.5 times his base speed.

 **Crack**

The sound of bones crushing could be heard.

It was a girl.

She was flung by the sheer power of the attack from the monster, a Kobold guardian and his club.

( _object data: player reset stats to default previous to change_ )

His stats went back to what it was before.

"Stay away from the nee-san!" Ainz yelled as he attacked.

His speed, while had been changed in mid charge, did not meant that his kinetic energy was changed.

He shoved his sword into the stomach of the Kobold and released it.

Then he quickly navigated his menu and equipped a new one and attacked the monster's exposed back. Killing it.

The girl had barely even a 1% HP left.

"Who?" she said weakly.

"thank god! You are alive, here… have a potion" he said.

The girl was unable to move, she was inflicted with paralysis status.

"Damn… hold on… this might be a bit rough" Ainz said as he took a swig of the potion.

He held her head up and kissed her, passing the potion from him to her.

"Wow… you made it here? I guess you got the info too uh?" a voice said.

"I am glad this newbie is safe… I don't like when people spread false rumors using my name" another voice said.

The girl woke up since the potion went the wrong way a bit and coughed, she was still weak and paralyzed.

"it must be a hard work being an informant" Kirito said.

"Well nee-san, I managed to confirm the false rumor as false. And someone was disseminating this info under your name? Any clues as to whom?" Ainz asked.

"Yeah… he should be around here" she said.

"No… there is no one else here only us, sorry to tell you that" Ainz said.

Argo sighed.

"Need help hunting down the imposter? I don't mind going orange for nee-chan" Ainz said with a angelic smile.

"Hey Ainz, I see you are playing the knight in shining armor" Kirito said with a smirk.

"not at all. It was sheer luck that Argo asked me to do this, I didn't know you would be dropped into this too nii-san" Ainz said as they did a fist bump.

"men" Argo said with a sigh.

"Well I gotta go… you will be in good hands with this little guy. he is quite strong now" Kirito said with a smirk and left.

The girl laid against the rock.

"informant?" she asked.

"It's just as it sounds I buy and sell information for a price… or bury it forever if necessary, by the way this info is 10 Col" she said with a smirk.

Ainz just open a trade window and gave her 900 Col.

"Don't skimp on the info nee-san, I am also interested" he said.

She nodded.

The girl laughed "This is a game… but it all feels so real" she said.

"of course, this is our new reality… so this is, for all intent and purposes our reality" Ainz said.

"Wow… you say some pretty grown up stuff, you sure you are a little kid?" Argo asked with a playful smirk.

Ainz nodded "I turned 13 on the launch day" Ainz said.

Both girls gasped.

How cruel. To be stuck on this death game on his birthday and being forced to fight and survive this cruel world.

But she was hopeful, as he maintained an upbeat personality and was kind.

"Miss informant… is the hidden log out place false then?" she asked.

"I am sorry… there is no such thing" she said.

"Then… in that case… sell me information…. To make me stronger" the girl said.

"Then, stay with those 2… they will be able to teach you. If not, the kid here can help you out. He did beat that field boss without the use of Sword skills" Argo said. "Also I will throw in this since Ainz-bou paid for it" she gave them both a book.

A field guide.

She then read through it as was a holy text.

She learned how to use her weapon properly and how to recognize active monsters and non-hostile.

She got the hang of it REALLY fast.

Her attacks were swift and precise, she moved VERY fast and killed the blue boar that was walking around.

Argo then asked for her name "Asuna Yuuki"

"No… I meant your username. Well that's okay… since we are trapped here anyone would make that mistake" Argo said.

"Do you think I could kill that monster with this weapon?" Asuna asked.

Argo gave her some info, about a labyrinth that held Kobold of high level.

Ainz send a PM to Kirito.

"Check the girl from earlier… keep her safe, she will be in the Kobold Labyrinth"

A couple days later.

Asuna was on the dungeon… fighting and killing monsters left and right, she was mentally exhausted but she continued on. It has been 3 days since she entered and she had yet to leave.

But because of it she lost her edge and was surrounded by Kobold warriors.

There were 8 in total and they attacked.

She dodged an attack, then countered and then she got nicked by one.

She was stunned.

"Damn it… is this how I die? Well it doesn't matter… I pushed to the end… so if this is it…" She said accepting her death.

A dark blur passed her by.

The black player slashed out at the Kobolds and killed a few of them.

"You know… if you keep fighting like this you are going to die" the black clothed boy said.

The girl gritted her teeth.

"we are all going to die sometime… the only difference is when… sooner or later!" she yelled. "at least let me fight to my heart's content… so I can die satisfied"

"Your life is not yours anymore… that young boy who saved you asked me to keep an eye on you and he was right… not that I care about it but he put his all to save you, so you have a responsibility to live that live… if you want to die go on, but first give me your mapping data" Kirito said. "You can die after that if you want. Now, on your feet"

She then stood up trembling.

"That's the spirit miss fencer… don't worry we should be having another member soon" Kirito said.

A Kobold got behind Kirito.

"Duck!" Asuna yelled.

The monster stopped a couple inches away from Kirito.

A blade to the nape and another to his stomach, two swords embedded in its body.

It then burst into pixels.

"man it is such a shame this is not a sword skill, can you imagine the sheer damage it would do?" a familiar young voice said cheerfully.

The young figure picked the blades the monster dropped from its body after vanishing.

"Tell me about it… by the way, nice entrance… mine was better though" Kirito said.

"Bullshit! Let's have Asuna decide… who had the better entrance?" Ainz asked.

They were surrounded by 3 times the amount now.

"Uhmmm… this maaay be a bit problematic" Ainz said.

"Okay you take the ones on the right, Ainz you the ones on the left, I will take the ones on the middle, ready?" Kirito ordered out.

"Don't order me around!" Asuna yelled.

"Go!" he shouted.

 **10 minutes later**

She was a force of nature… fast, precise, each stroke a work of art.

It was a sight to see.

"like a shooting star" Kirito said to himself.

After killing the 24 Kobold warriors they exited the dungeon.

Or would had if Asuna had not collapsed from mental exhaustion.

Kirito pulled her out into the area outside and let her to rest while Ainz out any soft material he had underneath her head for comfort.

They panted as they rested against a rather large tree underneath it's cooling shade.

It was around 30 minutes until Asuna woke with a jerk. She scanned the area half expecting to be surrounded by monsters.

Only to find herself sleeping near a child who was holding her hand comfortably, holding tight, as the child was also sleeping.

Near her, under the tree, the black clothed swordsman laid resting, he noticed that Asuna was awake and greeted her.

"Morning Miss Fencer… had a nice na"

"Why… why didn't you leave me back there?" She asked.

The small boy (Ainz) woke up and begun analyzing the data coming from Asuna.

It seems that she had a wrong idea on what was going on, due to her upbringing, she had to be studying, working hard and go to an elite school… all top please her mother who never thought that anything she did was food enough, this gave her some emotional and psychological problems that were being logged by 'something' on a subsystem, but he managed to read some of the data as it flowed to the other side as she slept.

Due to this she was desperately trying to overcome her weakness and escape this world she was trapped in.

"You are free to have your glamorous death all you want but I want your map data first" he said with a smirk.

She stared at him for a bit.

"of course there are ways to get the data I need when the person is asleep" he said.

Kirito shrieked as he narrowly avoided a stinger attack.

" **What did you do to my body?** " She said as she held him at sword point.

"Ainz… do or say something! I think she has the wrong idea!" Kirito pleaded.

"So the fact that you asked me to help you take pictures of her in embarrassing poses to blackmail her wouldn't count?" Ainz asked innocently, playing a prank on his brother in the absolute worst moment.

Kirito turned to stone and Asuna got all rigid.

"Y... **You!** " He yelled as her sword glowed red. "You used the map data as an excuse and did… things… and things to my body"

" T- THAT'S A BUM RAP! Are you trying to get me killed?" Kirito said as the blade got close to his face.

Ainz stopped her blade. "I was just joking…. Jesus… does he look like the type to do that?" Ainz asked.

Asuna glared at Kirito and then her stomach growled.

Both Ainz and Kirito snorted.

Asuna turned around feeling embarrassed about her stomach growling so hard.

"we should eat something, it is rather late" Ainz said.

"Yeah… if you want to keep fighting you should keep in top shape so eat something" Kirito said. "Think of it as a exchange for the mapping data, it's tasty"

"I am having doubts on your taste, this is plain black bread" Asuna said.

"Yes… but add some of this to it" Kirito said as he pulled out a small jar and clicked on it.

Asuna did the same and found it was cream.

She took a bite and.

Blush

Delicious! milky creamy goodness!

She then begun to voraciously eat it up.

"Seems like she will take another" Ainz said.

She then explained her reason of being this way.

She did not want to shrivel up and die cooped up in the town, she wanted to actively do something to escape.

"It's 100 floors… it's been two months and we haven't even found the boss let alone beat him… do you know how many died? Two thousand! This is hopeless… we are never going to make it" she said.

"Nee-san" Ainz said as he held her face to his level so she could see his eyes "I can see you are scared, you are angry and afraid, but… if I thought the way you do… I wouldn't have bother to save your life… because… every life matters, no matter how small every person has an impact on others. You see… I too want to finish this game, to save the people who are still alive and struggling to survive this reality imposed upon them… but I don't have that luxury, many players I meet ask me to go back to town, to go to the leave tje clearing to the adults, but I can't… not after seeing the eyes of those who decided to leave the game in… unconventional ways" Ainz said as he looked down.

Asuna gasped, it was clear to her that Ainz had been witness to suicides in-game.

"I don't want people to have those eyes… dead and dull. You had those eyes too nee-san, you were just looking to die… just in a different way" Ainz said.

Asuna trembled as Ainz broke her down.

Then a bell rang.

"Seems like it's 3 o clock… time to go" he said.

"Go? Go were?" Asuna asked.

"To the second floor before anyone else" Kirito said with a smirk. "It's time for the boss battle… wanna come?" he said.

They walked back to town looking around as Ainz bought as many potions as he could carry.

"At the amphitheater at 4 o clock" Kirito said.

Both Ainz and Kirito left her alone as Ainz waved her goodbye.

It was then when Argo appeared behind Asuna.

"Intrigued about them?" she asked.

Chapter end


	3. Chapter 3

Sword Art Overline

Chapter 3: The first contact/ Battle against the first floor boss.

Ainz and Kirito sat on the back as they both looked at the small gathering of people. All united to beat the boss.

"Don't think they are all doing it for altruistic reasons… some of them just want to beat the boss for the sake of beating it… they are afraid you know? Of being left behind… Tough I am not sure how they will react to little Ainz here" Kirito said looking at the kid worried.

Thanks to Kirito's knowledge of quests and mob location, they managed to rack quite a lot of EXP and Col… not to mention that with Ainz ability (Unknown to Kirito) he manipulated the EXP from monsters to be slightly higher than normal by a factor of 1.5 times.

Currently, it would be safe to assume that they were the highest leveled players of the floor.

And with a resounding clap a single player took the attention of all those gathered.

"thank you for heeding my call today! My name is Diabel and I am of the knight job" he said.

"Hahaha… there is no job system on this game"

"Bet he wanted to say Hero" another one chortled.

This guy was good, sympathetic, charismatic, this guy was leader material.

"All of you are top players… being in the front lines trying to clear this game and I hardly need to remind you why you are all here… as the highest leveled players it is our duty to now beat the boss it took nearly 2 months to locate and show all that this game of death can be beaten" Diabel said.

"Now wait just a second" a voice called out.

A lanky man with a thuggish face (unlike Klein, this one was a bad looking thug while he was more… roguish) jumped down to the center stage.

"Before we all start playing all buddy buddy I got to take something off my chest" he said.

"What's on your mind? Opinions are always welcome, however you need to introduce yourself first" Diabel said with a smile.

The thug grunted but conceded that point.

"the name is Kibaou" he said… then he took a deep breath.

"COME ON YOU COWARDLY BETA TESTERS… SHOW YOURSELVES! I KNOW THERE ARE 5 OR 10 AROUND HERE! COME OUT AND NAME YOURSELVES! YOU OWE AN APOLOGY TO THE 2 THOUSAND PEOPLE WHO ARE DEAD BECAUSE YOU WERE TOO BUSY HOGGING EVERYTHING TO YOURSELVES! PROSTRATE ON YOUR HANDS AND KNEES AND DONATE ALL YOUR COL AND ITEMS" he yelled out.

"Kuhuhuhu…. Huhuhu...haha haha...HAHAHAHAHAHA" Someone laughed.

They all turned around to see a small boy laughing hysterically.

"What's so funny kid?" Kibaou asked glaring at Ainz.

"No… is just… for a grown-up… you sure don't seem to understand how the world works is all… so seeing you say those things… is just too much, you know?" Ainz said as he whipped the tears off his eyes.

"W-what?" Kibaou said as he took a single step back.

Ainz walked down from the back looking at Kibaou without flinching or backing down. He walked until he was face to face with him.

He pushed the bangs off his eyes as he looked at Kibaou in his eyes.

"Tell me, who is responsible for your actions?" Ainz asked.

"What?!" he asked.

"Your actions, who is in charge of them?" Ainz said.

"Well duh, myself, who else?" Kibaou replied.

"Then is your life your own responsibility?" Ainz continued.

"Yes…. I choose what to do and when I do it" He said with a grin.

"Then why are you asking for the Beta players to do such foolish actions? What a contemptible man… if I grow up to become such a man as you I rather be my age forever, no one is responsible for anyone else, they have no obligation to hold your hands or babysit you when they can do far more productive things such as mapping data, monster analysis and discovery of skills and shops, so get out of your own way and level up and maybe you will amount to something other than and pathetic crybaby" Ainz said to Kibaou who felt like someone just wailed on him with a Warhammer+8 on the face.

Everyone on the theater begun to mutter.

"Hey, isn't that a kid?"

"What he say does make sense"

"Still… that Kibaou got dressed down brutally by a kid… ouch, bet he won't be able to live that down"

"If I might interject" Another voice sounded off.

It was a tall black man who walked down with purpose and a calm gait.

"my name is Agil and like the boy here I come to refute your claims" he said as he pulled a familiar looking book.

"Hey…. How did you?" Ainz asked.

"this book was created thanks to Beta players… every time I reached a new town, shops had this book for free, a handy guide for noobs… to be honest the way it was updated was fast… then I realised, it was due to the beta players who arduously ventured into the territories unknown managed to collect data due to having some foreknowledge of the areas, the information was out there for anyone to pick up, there is no better gift for new players like us than this, those who died were for their own inability to adapt to this world, thinking it would work like other MMOs" Agil said.

Between the kid and the big black guy Kibaou had to retreat for now.

And so the matter was settled at least for now.

Just then when they decided to go back onto the topic a new person came in rushing.

"Diabel-san… look!" The player said waving a booklet.

It was a strategy guide for the boss.

It explained all the stats… name, and numerical data.

"Hey… wait a minute… look at this!" Kibaou said as he glared at the note on the booklet.

" **Warning** : this is all information from the SAO beta version, details may not match current version of the game"

"I knew it! The informant must know some beta testers… in fact I bet the rat is a beta herself… maybe we should go and have a little chat, eh?" he said with a cruel smirk.

"What the?!" Kibaou yelled as he found himself on the floor with two swords on his neck on as scissor like position.

"Threaten, Argo-neesan… and I will PK you on the spot" Ainz said as he let go all the rage he could muster into his words.

His eyes were cold and had long lost any playfulness to them.

Kibaou shivered in fright as he felt a cold wave passover him.

This kid would really do it…

This kid would not are about killing him at all.

"Come on kid… you gotta back off… we are all equals in here… all lives are important" Diabel said.

"You are wrong" Ainz said, still on Kibaou's back "if I were to weight between his life and Argo-neechan… her life would be infinitely heavier than his… I only care for those I care… those I consider my family and friends… those are lives I would risk myself for… I would also do so for team members of my party as well… but I don't know you and you already made me dislike at the start… so how is it going to he? Do you really want to taste my resolve? Because if I have to dirty my hands to protect those I care about… I will gladly waddle through the mud of sin to protect those I care about" Ainz said.

Diabel sighed "Fair enough… still it feels bad that it has to be a small child who shows more maturity than the many grown ups in here" Diabel said.

Ainz got off from Kibaou who glared at him, but was still pretty much scared of him.

Because of his actions people were hesitant to have Ainz with them when they formed the raid parties, which suited him fine… he joined his big brother and big sister Kirito and Asuna.

"Nice going kid… I bet Argo is gonna love this info" Kirito said with a smirk.

Diabel came up to the trio and bowed in apologies for what happened.

He then asked them if they could hold off the add-ons (minions) that spawned in there.

"Since we are a small party I guess that's ok" Kirito said.

"Thank you… but I got to say… as a 'Knight' I am kind of jealous that you get to protect the princes" he said teasingly.

Kirito chuckled until he felt a murderous vibe from Asuna.

Ainz decided to help him out on this one "I know right? Asuna-neechan is pretty enough to be an idol" Ainz said with big puppy eyes.

"Awww how sweet" Asuna said as she hugged Ainz.

Both males stared at each other and then at Ainz and Asuna and thought the same " _Lucky bastard_ "

"We shall reconvene in two days time… until then try to level up if you can" Diabel said.

And so everyone begun to disperse.

"we are only the henchman guards? If they don't need us they should just say so" Asuna said.

"Well it can't be helped… if we had one more we could switch and do potion rotation" Kirito said.

Asuna flinched "Switch? Pot rotation?"

"Nee-chan is a true noob it seems" Ainz said nodding understandingly, he had some experience with other games as well as being under Kirito's tutelage for a little under 2 months.

"Why don't we do a practice quest tomorrow in the morning? The quest is only active in the mornings so we will get some practice done in the meantime we should go over some of the things tonight… we should go to a pub…" Kirito said.

" **No**! I don't want to be seen around with you" Asuna said as she marched off.

"Well… we could go back to our place we share… is 100 Col a night… we got plenty of space… all you can drink milk and I was thinking of finally taking a bath too" Ainz said.

Asuna stopped stomping off and did a 180 and rushed to them.

"What did he say?" Asuna asked shaking Kirito.

"We share a place?" Kirito said.

"No… after that!" Asuna shook him once more.

"All you can drink milk?" he added.

"No… not that!" She said.

"You mean the bath?" Kirito said hesitantly.

Asuna's eyes had shiny stars on them at the mention of a bath.

They arrived on the shared flat Kirito and Ainz rented out.

They entered and they showed her around… and then she saw **it**.

A beautiful bath flowing with water.

"Okay… enjoy" Kirito said.

"Uh?" Asuna was taken back.

"Oh… and just so you know the door doesn't close so be mindful ok?" Kirito said.

"Wait… Ainz must be all dirty from all the adventuring he does with you… he needs a bath as well" Asuna said looking at Ainz disapprovingly.

"What? I don't need a bath!" Ainz complained "this is an MMO on VR!" he said.

"no complaints… now get in" Asuna said as she pulled him.

"Noo… I don't want to take a bath… Ki-nii save me!" but it was no use… the door was closed with a stupid looking Kirito.

"Well damn" he said as he saw the door close.

Asuna and Ainz then de equipped their gear and got into the bath.

"Ahhh… this is blizz" Asuna said as she soaked in the hot water.

She scrubbed Ainz back and then risen him.

"I never had a younger sibling" Asuna said, "I am the youngest in the family… this is kinda nice" she said as she poured some water on Ainz head to wash off some imaginary dirt.

She then begun to think about her life… what was real and was not… even if this was a fake world… all the impulses she felt… the taste and the feelings were faithfully reproduced… so in the end? What was real? This bath for example… she never much cared for it back in the real world… she could take one whenever she wanted and took them for granted… now… she was in paradise after nearly 2 months without such a commodity.

"Thinking of your life before the game nee-chan?" Ainz asked.

She sighed.

"You are here… and you are alive… don't think about the real world, it doesn't exist for us anymore… we need to focus on the task ahead... so please nee-chan… don't disappear" Ainz said with a pleading tone.

Asuna choked back her tears as she hugged Ainz close to her.

They got dressed… or would have but then the door opened revealing Kirito on the ground.

He looked up to see Asuna's virgin white lingerie. "Sooo… is that part of your starter equipment?" he tried to joke lamely.

Ainz activated his ability and saw another data signature here.

"Argo-neesan?" Ainz called out.

Asuna was about ready to impale Kirito with her sword once more while Argo was praying to the gods that Kirito would had a better life in the next one.

 **The next morning**

Asuna took custody of Ainz off Kirito due to "him being led down a bad path should he stay with him".

Asuna slept happy as she had something warm to cuddle and Ainz… Well Ainz was not amused.

"Let's teach Asuna about combat rotation" Ainz said as he fixed his bed hair.

And so they took turns trying to teach Asuna how to attack, jump back once the monster's rhythm was disrupted and the other would jump in to capitalize with a bonus damage due to catching the mob flat footed while the one who switched out recovered health with pots.

It was rather hard because Asuna killed most of them herself without switching if she could help it.

"Well… it looks like she got it… more or less" Ainz said.

"You should check your looted items" Kirito said.

She did and found herself surprised.

"A sword?" she asked herself.

"Yup… that's a 'Wind Fleuret'. It's a great sword for a fencer, being so weighted towards Agility and precision… it's much better than the iron rapier that you buy from the shops…" He explained.

Asuna stared at her blade and how it reflected the light off the sun. "It's beautiful" she said admiring the sword.

Kirito could not help but stare at the beauty in front of him.

"ahem" coughed Argo, making Kirito flinch back to reality. "Now you need to upgrade it in town… after all that time in the labyrinth, you must have enough materials to get it to plus 4… I can show you a good blacksmith"

"Ah. .. thank you… uh, how much will I owe you-" Asuna said hut was interrupted

"No charge… Ainz-bou almost became orange for my sake at yesterday's event… think of this as a way to repay his actions" she said as she pulled his cheeks.

"Ne...neechan cut it out" Ainz said as she played with him.

"He is just too adorable… I wish he was my little brother" Argo said as she snuggled him against her chest.

"Say… do you mind if I upgrade all my weapons? I want all of them to be maxed out… the way I fight is very dirty so having them all as strong as they could be would help me out a lot" Ainz said.

"Sure… if you got the Col and the mats" Argo said shrugging as she teased Ainz some more.

 **Back in town**

The blacksmith hammered the sword over and over again… and then he handed it back "much obliged" the NPC said.

"cool.. so it is now a wind Fleuret plus 4… how does it feel?" Argo asked.

"Much lighter and it doesn't wobble anymore" she said as she gave a few experimental strikes.

After her Ainz unloaded a whole assortment of weapons, all being between knives, daggers, short swords and rappers and 4 wind Fleuret.

He had a total of 40 weapons all together.

"This may take a while" Ainz said "You guys go on ahead" he said.

"nee-san… remember… the battle starts at ten" Ainz said as Asuna left.

Kirito and Argo looked at each other.

 **The next day**

The raid party reached the boss room… they opened the door

Inside was Illfang, the Kobold Lord.

"As planned men! Charge!"

All the players were afraid… but they had to do this… they needed to pass this to further advance.

To fight and possibly die or stagnate forever… those were the choices.

The choose to fight.

Asuna looked at all the players how they worked together to overcome this ordeal, working like a single machine.

"Asuna!" a voice called out.

Clap.

Baton pass.

"Switch!" Ainz said as he rushed in with a dagger.

Turning on the balls of his feet he narrowly avoided the Kobold sentinel attack and delivered a blow to the nape of it.

"Switch!" Kirito called out as Ainz jumped to the side as Kirito did a 3 hit combo rush.

The other players paused as they saw those 2 tear the 2 sentinels they had trouble with with ease and style. They even did a high five and down low in the middle.

"more incoming… they seem to be stronger than the first wave" Ainz said as he saw the data stream for the spawn location.

He rushed exactly where one would spawn and capitulated on the spawn delay to action and shoved a dagger on their necks.

The main team continued to wear down Illfang… but Ainz saw something odd on the data.

( _If object = monster class boss = Illfang, The Kobold Lord equip = green to yellow health = bone ax plus shield if Illfang, the kobold lord health = red change to Second form = equipment switch to = Odachi_ )

Blink

"Wasn't it supposed to be a Talwar?" Ainz asked.

"What do you mean?" Kirito said as they saw the monster's health go to the red.

Bumb bumb

A heart beat

" _the data… it is outdated… the system made a change to one single instance and that would ruin this! The attack pattern for that would be twice as faster than with the other one… they will be unable to compensate!_ " Ainz thought desperately

Diabel charged his sword skill to finish him off.

"Diabel stop! That's a Nodachi not a talwar! The attack speed is faster than yours!" Kirito yelled.

It was too late.

"No… no… **NOOOOO!** " Ainz yelled.

Bump bump

A heartbeat

Time stopped it seemed the system had lagged.

No… things were moving slow… way to slow.

He was watching how Diabel would go to his death in slow motion.

"No… defeat it… I must defeat it"

"Defeat it… how? My stats are lower than its… skills? Yes… my ability… see the data… extrapolate… include data and analyze it"

His mind raced as he read through the lines of codes.

( _If enemy target = Illfang stronger than object= player 'Ainz' then copy paste status of enemy Illfang Agility and Strength to user = Ainz_ )

That took care of the stats… but now what… he would not reach on time.

( _Analyse attack pattern 'Linear burst' extrapolate data and rebuild a new sword skill using Linear Burst as a template… compiling… compiling done making new sword skill combining attack skill Linear burst and upper vertical attack… compiling… new sword skill compiled, uploading to server… server status operational. Upload accepted, registered as unique sword skill name = Raising Comet… attack has 0 sec activation and a 5 second stun penalty)_

Time then marched on.

"nii-san… I need you to back me up… I will attack and disrupt Illfang and you get Diabel… neechan… I need you to get me out of the way as soon as I land… I will be stunned and unable to move for 5 seconds…. We only have one chance" Ainz said as he crouched… he held his sword on a reverse grip and positioned on a running start.

"Go!" he shouted.

Asuna fast was… but right now… Ainz was faster… a blur of red and black he made it as Illfang connected his first attack… it was a linear and then immediately it was followed by a vertical attack with linear thrown in it… basically a combination of a linear on the ground and one that went vertically with the same speed and the power of the actual Vertical sword skill.

" **DIEEEEEEEEE!** " Ainz yelled as he looked like an avenging angel.

His attack was meet with Illfang's blade… for a second one though it did not work... but then…

Crack

Many shards of the sword scattered around.

The blade broke and his attack followed through… ripping out its left eye.

Kirito rushed in and pulled Diabel who was a sliver away from dying and Asuna managed to get Ainz out of the way.

Ainz had lost more than 40 percent of his total health due to the sheer pressure the sword skill placed on him, plus the system actively fighting his exchange of data with the boss.

They got to the rear lines as they shoved a pot on Diabel and Ainz's mouths.

Ainz stood up… the stunt effect was over.

"Nii-san… nee-san… let's finish this boss" Ainz said as he stood up.

They nodded "Remember just as we practice… let's disrupt his attack patterns" Asuna said.

"Okay you disrupt I attack" Kirito said.

"What... no! This is my plan I will attack!" Asuna said.

"Shut up and charge!" Ainz said as he dashed in.

He smacked the broken weapon away.

"Switch!" he said.

Kirito rushed cancelled Illfang's and the attacked with a 3 hit combo.

"Switch!"

Asuna rushed in with a 8 hit combo with her wind Fleuret.

The monster then glared at Asuna.

"Hey… just who are you looking at with those filthy eyes?" Ainz said as his eyes changed into the cold murderous ones he had when he dealt with Kibaou.

Then in unison Kirito and Ainz grabbed their long swords and slashed into its body… killing it.

A congratulatory banner appeared as they killed the boss.

In front of them they got a 'Last attack' Bonus… Due to them doing the same amount of damage at the same time the system could not decide who would get it and thus decided to give them both a prize.

Kirito got the Coat of Midnight and Ainz got something else…

"Kobold Lord's Nodachi" he said as he saw the stats for it.

This weapon would last him for at least 3 more floors… even more if he upgraded it.

The thing is… this blade was so long that he couldn't equip it and carry it around.

Still it looked pretty cool… cosmetically speaking.

The raid finished with everyone surviving… if only barely.

Everyone was cheering they beat the first floor.

They had advanced… they managed to go to the next level… only 99 floors to go.

Ainz and Kirito collapsed on the floor from mental exhaustion.

But both had a happy grin on their faces… they managed to make it out alive and no losses to the players either.

After resting they got up and opened the door to the next floor.

But just before that…

"Wait a minute… you… how did you know how to cancel his attacks and his rhythm? You are also a beta tester aren't you? You and that informant must have been clouding together and keep the good stuff to yourselves… you bastard you just wanted the L.A bonus!" Kibaou roared.

Kibaou now had something to grasp… and he would NOT let go.

"You and that informant… working together and keeping information to yourself…. You almost got us killed just for your greed and selfishness!" he said.

"Wait a minute… even if that's true" Asuna said to defend Kirito.

"No… way a minute Miss Fencer… stick up for me and they will turn on you… besides… the problem with goody-two-shoes is that you won't realised when you are being used… and the rest of you? Shame on you… beta tester? Don't lump me with those losers" he said as he looked into his menu.

"out of the thousand beta testers I alone reached the highest floors that no one else could on my own… I am no mere beta tester" he said with a cruel smirk.

"What the hell? That is even worst!"

"he is a cheater!"

"No… he is a beater" (Beta cheater)

"Beater uh? I like it… I will take the title and the last attack bonus" he said as he equipped the cloak of midnight. "I am a beater… don't insult me by calling me a mere beta player"

And so he walked forth

"APOLOGIZE…. APOLOGIZE TO THOSE WHO DIED DAMN IT!" a player shouted in rage as Kirito walked away to the second floor followed by Ainz who just looked back at the the players with disgust.

"Until we meet again nee-san… become strong… stronger than the current you… so we can fight again together" Ainz said.

And so both boys walked into the new territory.

Chapter end


	4. Chapter 4

Sword Art Overline

Chapter 4: A little side story and Floor 2 woes.

Many people wondered what had happened when Asuna left the group after upgrading her Wind Fleuret…

Well Ainz decided to buy the info from Argo.

"The payment is some information, give and take… tell me how did you know I was behind the door? My hiding skill is rather high after all" Argo asked.

Ainz sighed… he couldn't tell her that he saw the lines of code of her character data, that would put all but a bullseye on him.

"Well… who else could it be? Ki-niisan is kinda a loner and the only people who know about him would be Argo-neechan, Asuna and myself… and also before that I heard a rhythmic knocking… like a code, if he opened the door it must been someone he knew, and considering how big is his friend list it did not require much thought" Ainz said.

Argo glared at him, she was not convinced at all… however.

Ainz was beaming at her with that pure and cute smile of his.

"Oh my… you are very smart! You must be the smarter 7th grader in your school" she said with a smirk.

"You are wrong nee-san… I am actually a sophmore in highschool" Ainz said.

Argo blinked.

"I was gonna go to college but it would be too much of a financial burden to my family so I opted for high school… I was taking AP classes tough" Ainz said.

Argo blinked again… this kid was in the same grade as she was in school… no… not quite… he was in advanced placement classes, classes that are taken in college! This kid was a genius!

"Okay… I did my end of the bargain… now your turn" Ainz said.

Argo then hummed, she was thinking on how to set the story.

 **Earlier that day (a day before the boss raid)**

Asuna was walking about town looking left and right, she was searching for something.

A few minutes later She found it… the store she heard about!

Elizabeth Secret

A store geared for underwear and lingerie.

Asuna then searched for something to buy. They all looked so cute.

She then saw something a bit risqué… she was wondering if she should dare to buy it.

" _it looks so cute!_ " she thought as she debated to do it or not.

Then… as she pulled the items away to search for the in she was meet with the grinning face of Argo.

"GYAAAAAAAAAA!" Asuna shouted in fright and shock due to the sudden appearance.

"Oh? You were going to buy that? Not bad… I will put this information on my top tier price and I will even give you a commission every time the info is bought… not a bad deal, right?" she said with a grin.

Asuna then turned around "I THINK I WILL TAKE THESE!" she said to herself out loud as she bought a cute pair of matching silky panties and bra… she then later bought a pair of boots with a better defence rating.

Argo walked down the street and stopped near an alley.

"Don't worry about the princess… someone buying that kinda things is not thinking of dying" Argo informed to the other person.

"I see… that's good to hear" Kirito said as he stepped out of the shadows.

"Wanna know what she bought?" Argo said with a smirk as she nudged Kirito.

"Goodbye Argo… here is what I owe you" Kirito said as he left.

 **Day of the raid**

Kirito, Asuna and Ainz meet on the outer entrance to the boss.

"Hey nee-san, ready to fight?" Ainz asked.

She nodded with a smile.

Kirito then gave her a once look over.

"Oh… nice purchase… you bought it yesterday?" Kirito asked referring about her new boots.

She pushed her skirt down and glared at him, as she thought he was talking about her underwear she bought yesterday.

"I bought it for today okay!" she said.

"Okay…" Kirito said.

 **Back to Argo and Ainz**

"Ahhh…. So that explains why she acted that way" Ainz said in realisation.

"Oh...that's right… Here a gift!" Ainz said as he send her a trade request.

She accepted and materialised the item.

It was a small mouse plush with the same marks she had.

"I was grinding some hobby skills and thought to make something for you… I hope you like it?" Ainz asked.

Argo was taken by this and smiled.

"Thanks kid" she said with a light blush.

Ainz smiled as he took a swig of milk.

" _As soon as we reach floor 2 I need to find the taste engine… the info I could get from there would help make people more comfortable if they could make comfort food that tasted good… eating bread all the time will get boring fast_ " Ainz thought.

 **Fast forward: 2nd floor**

Ainz and Kirito were exploring an area of a forest about 4 kilometers away from the town on the second floor.

According to some info he gotten from the consoles, the taste engine was near a waterfall, the entrance was visible but blocked by a barrier, same as the others.

So far Ainz and Kirito had both leveled 4 times since they arrived to the second floor.

Ainz had upgraded his armor once he reached this level. It was a thick leather armor made from black leather, it had many belts but did not cover his navel and his shoulders were exposed.

His boots were also black with red accents and metal soles and toe, they increased his Defensive stats but decreased his Agility somewhat… not that it mattered when he could reassign values to his stats at will to counteract this penalty.

Also it had a cool effect, when he skidded on the floor, sparks flew out of it.

So far they had mapped 3 fourths of the forest, managed to find some quests (a rather boring escort quest that was a pain in the area, as the NPC appeared to be nigh suicidal, but as a tradeoff offered a substantial amount of Col as a reward)

He also made arrangements to get his weapons all upgraded to +5… Argo got him a juicy info as thanks for the plush toy.

There was finally a player blacksmith and had a good reputation as well.

He went to look for him but Argo told him he had closed shop and was somewhere around the forest.

He decided to split from Kirito on the forest "We will cover more ground, and we can share map data to update each other and then resell the info" Ainz said as an excuse.

Kirito thought of this as smart thinking and so he went to find the Taste Engine debug room.

He went to the waterfall and analyzed the barrier.

It seemed as this was not going to happen soon, the admin and password was different and it has a layer of protection, if he did not do things carefully he would be flagged by the system and quite possibly…

No… he couldn't think such thoughts, and so he left feeling disappointed.

" _Maybe I should post some flyers that I am requesting a player who is knowledgeable on hacking_ " Ainz thought.

He messaged Kirito to meet back in town.

 **Later in town**

Ainz was sitting in a pub with Kirito… he had a piece of brown paper and looked at it "What do you think?" Ainz asked.

"It looks good… just post it around the city square and the pubs and you should get a reply soon enough" Kirito said.

If there was one thing the both learned is that they could buy alcoholic beverages here… unfortunately this game made all such drinks into non-alcoholic versions for minors.

"kinda feels like a downer uh? Wasn't there a saying 'old enough to kill old enough to drink'?" Kirito said to himself.

Ainz shrugged, he was more of a soda faction himself, but because this was a middle age kingdom setting he had to settle for fruit juice.

It was 2 days later when he found someone who answered his flyer, a player named Igniz.

He taught him how people hacked and taught him the ways people builded codes to prevent or delay a system response to their attempt as well as camouflaging their own location and even changing their coding signature to prevent people to catching on to them.

The he explained about hacking tools and how they worked.

Log keystrokes was out, there were no admins other than maybe Kayaba, but he wouldn't use the place he found.

DDoS attack would be useful to buy time when infiltrating the system… he wrote down everything he could.

Another one would be a Dictionary Attack… this would try many different letters and number combinations, combined with a DDoS would be very efficient.

The best bet would be the use of algorithms that would search for old records on the data code and extract the info… this with the DDoS would be exactly what he needed, still he had to build the code from scratch and make a macro to initiate the hack attack.

" _I need to develop a more original way… even though this techniques are good they are too well documented to not be noticed… I will use them but I will need to develop better ways on my own_ " Ainz thought to himself after his lesson…

He wanted to pay the man what they agreed but he declined. "Keep it kid… I am not that kind of adult that would charge a kid for something you could find online… hope you got what you need" he said as he left.

Ainz decided to take a nap.

As he slept he had a dream…

He was in a sea of data… 0s and 1s

He was floating in an azure sea of binary code.

He saw the gate he was unable to access.

The gate broke down into a image made of data… there was a piece missing.

" _that must be the password_ " Ainz rationalised.

He looked down and saw many pieces around him.

"What the.." he said to himself.

He noticed some looked like a continuation of the code in the barrier and some were garbage data.

Slowly he picked the piece and placed on the wall, the gap grew smaller… the color of the barrier changed to yellow.

"A warning? Is it detecting the intrusion?"

He then looked down and glanced around "got to find the continuation of the code… got to act fast"

It was then when he woke up with a jerk.

"Gah!"

"Ouch!"

Kirito held his eye in pain and Ainz his head as he hit the back of his head with the tree behind him.

"Ni… nii-san?" Ainz said confused.

"Hi" Kirito said groaning in pain.

 **Moments later**

After having a good meal they discussed on what to do.

It was hard because they been avoiding everyone and going incognito… they had leveled up their hiding skill a lot… although Ainz cheated by forcing the players to not notice him by means similar to suggestion.

He send an electronic signal received to the player via data from the NerveGear to 'not look at player Ainz' or 'ignore player Ainz'.

Still he grinder the hide skill in tandem… might as well grind it.

They were also actively avoiding Asuna, as they were both the Beater and his follower and thus persona non grata by many players.

Both of them took their scorn with dignity and grace.

By which I mean that Ainz messed with their Character impulse data and made it so if they tried to use their hands their legs moved and so on and so forth…

Many people freaked out… but the prank wore off after a few hours.

Also Ainz had pranked someone else… the player Klein they meet before… he decided to play a prank on him so he changed his player data… specifically his name…

What did he change it to?

Ballsdeep69.

And thus that is how he was known by everyone… and he had no idea why, and blamed Ainz for setting the precedence back then.

He was right… and wrong at the same time.

They continued to trek around and found the people they had avoided the most.

The party that cleared the boss and Asuna.

They were all preparing to fight the field boss.

They decided to hide, for extra security Ainz deployed a 'force ignore' subroutine to their signals on their Nervegear.

Ainz learned to **never** underestimate a girl after seeing Argo at work.

She used him and his cuteness to inflate the prices on her info and even made him collect the money from many players.

She had weaponised his cuteness and charisma for the sake of capitalism… and her wallet.

But, to be fair, she did gave him 30 percent of what he collected.

Also she treated him to some food.

So they observed as the group was unsure what to do.

While Ainz and Kirito were high leveled, it was not enough for both of them to solo this field boss… the rule of thumb is as follows: a floor boss minimum level requirement is the floor level +10 as a minimum to keep a safety threshold, and that was on a raid. A field boss, while not as powerful as a boss room would require at least half of that.

They decided to watch them.

To be honest they were not very productive… Kibaou and another fellow by the name of Lind were arguing something about names… something with Tigers and Dragons.

Asuna was looking at the monster cow with eagerness.

" _I wonder how much steak that would make_ " she thought.

And so they discussed and Kibaou came up to her and asked her to join a group, she declined stating she was a solo player and that she needed to farm the wasps that the bull spawned for drops.

She then flinched.

She got closer to the shrubbery and then.

"I found a peeping tom" she said as she dragged the previously hidden Kirito.

"But how? I was using my hide skill" he said in shock as he was being dragged by Asuna. And so he was put on wasp duty.

Ainz was ignored by all due to his ability… however Kirito was suspicious… Ainz had been quite literally next to him, how did Asuna not notice him? His hiding skill should be about the same as his… perhaps a bit higher since he liked to run errands for Argo but still.

They noticed a group of people nearby… players, they had very nice armor too.

Asuna explained that they were new to the front lines but that they had decent gear… so their levels would be boosted by 3 more levels.

They seemed mismatched for some reason…

"So.. do they have a funny name for their group?" Kirito asked.

Asuna deadpanned and looked to the side.

"I believe it is… The legend Braves" she said.

Kirito could not hold in his laughter.

She explained that each member had a name for a legend… but their physical appearance and that of the hero… Well. .. there was a huge gap.

And it made it all more hilarious.

Them they noticed something… some players had used a blacksmith player to upgrade their gear… and to their surprise he had managed 5 successive upgrades in a row.

A lot of players came to him for his services.

"Let's make a contest of this… loser pays the winners meal" Asuna said.

Ping

"I am in too!" Ainz shouted as he appeared behind Asuna.

"Gah! Ainz?! Where did you come from?" Asuna said shocked at his sudden appearance.

"Ready? GO!" Ainz shouted as he jumped in.

"Wait… you brat… that's not fair!" Kirito shouted as he jumped into the fray.

The ones taking the boss were having a hard time… they were uncoordinated and argued between them too much… the blacksmith was watching the whole thing and was irritated that the main team was doing so poorly… but then he saw the ones on wasp duty.

"25!" Kirito said as he slashed yet another wasp.

"26 for me" Asuna said as she elegantly defeated a wasp.

Ainz just yelled as he used 'Circular' sword skill and killed 5 wasps using the Kobold Lord's Nodachi.

"and that makes 35 for me!" he said with a grin.

" _Damn it… Asuna's attack deal low damage but she makes it up for her precise critical hits… if anything her sword is holding her back… and Ainz has an AOE attack range when using that sword… then… I have to make the gap shrink by having more attacks_ " Kirito thought as he did an uppercut, killing another wasp.

Asuna then frantically begun to attack more, not wanting to be outdone by Ainz or let Kirito catch up.

Kirito then noticed a single wasp ignoring everyone and flying towards the bull.

It landed on it, very gracefully… and then… stung it.

The bull went berserk!

It was attacking with more force and it's pattern changed too.

"Come on men… we must show our mettle… heroes unite!" The Legend Brave shouted and blocked the attack of the bull.

"What should we do?" Asuna asked "it's weak point is the bulb on the top but… it's to high for us" Asuna said.

"I can do something... can you two trip him over? Attack his you know what" Ainz said.

"Great idea!" Kirito said.

"Wait… what 'you know what'?" Asuna asked.

Kirito attacked the legs and Asuna went for the 'target'... but her attack missed!

"Damn it nee-san, you had **one job** " Ainz said as he planted his sword and used it as a vaulting pole.

Ainz was in the air and twisted around, his sword raised high… he reached the apex of his flight.

His sword glowed red.

"Take this! HELM BREAKER!" Ainz yelled as he plummeted like a meteorite towards the bull.

The blade cut through the thick hide and finished the boss… Ainz landed with the blade perfectly aligned.

And thus the Last Attack bonus went to him.

"Haha… I won! Now nee-chan and nii-san got to pay for my meal tonight" Ainz said waving his huge sword around.

A wasp the came in and knocked his sword away from him.

"Eh?"

"Eh…. EEEEEEEH!? NOOOOO!" Ainz yelled as he rushed to catch his blade.

It fell down the ravine.

"My…. My sword…" Ainz said with his eyes welling up.

All the grownups felt so bad… a few even tried giving him some candy.

"Don't worry… let's go to the next town… we will solve it all there and explain how to do it too" Kirito said.

They reached the town and went to the restaurant to relax… they felt bad as Ainz was still pouting. They ordered the cake and as they waited Kirito explained to Ainz what to do.

"Go to your Menu and scroll down, click the item tab and scroll down… hidden down there is a subroutine called materialize all… and click it" Kirito explained.

A bunch of materials, food items, potions and weapons of many different classes materialised as well a many different clothes.

Rumage rumage

"Here you go" Kirito said as he handed him his lost blade.

"Awesome! Welcome back partner!" Ainz said cuddling the huge sword.

Kirito chuckled awkwardly.

He explained that it was a function in case you lost your item… it did not work if you threw it yourself and had a limit of an hour for equipment and 5 minutes for items.

"Still I am glad Ainz was able to recover his sword… he did earn it with blood, sweat and tears, I would be devastated if I lost mine" Asuna said holding her sword gently.

"Seems like you really care for it" Kirito stated.

"Of course… it's my one and true partner" she said with a gentle smile.

Kirito then looked at her, his playfulness now gone, it was serious Kirito now.

"Asuna… even if you raise your Wind Fleuret to its max level (+6), it won't last you past the end of the 3rd floor" Kirito warned.

This sentence was like a physical blow to Asuna, she reeled back.

"If you wish to survive… the day will come when you will have to exchange it for a stronger sword… it ducks by you will have to…"

"No… I don't. .. want to do that" she said. "All this time… I thought of swords as nothing but tools… my only weapons were my skills… and my determination to survive… that's what I thought… but then when you brought me together with this sword on the first floor… I didn't want to admit I was moved… it was light as a feather, helping protect my life, so pristine and pure, as it had a will of its own… we survived through this together… I couldn't possibly give it up" she said.

"It seems that nee-san is quite the romantic at heart… don't worry nee-san… I learned from a reliable source that in SAO you can turn your swords into ingots, and use that to create a new sword… I am sure that when you do so and make a new sword with your old one… the feelings you out into it… will be carried by the next one… and returned in kind" Ainz said with a kind smile.

Asuna smile and Kirito couldn't help but be smitten by it…

Fortunately before anyone could notice this the cake came and then the 2 fought in how to divide the cake.

"Easy… give me 40 percent of the cake to me and the 60 percent can be divided in half between you two" Ainz said.

They both blinked.

"You are WAY too smart for a preeteen" Asuna said.

"Well… I am on AP classes in high school… would that help explain things?" Ainz asked.

They decided to eat their cake in silent contemplation.

They had a genius kid with them.

After they had their fill of the cake they noticed that they had an unexpected bonus.

15 minutes of bonus luck.

Ainz did not need it… he could manipulate the drop system to his advantage so he could get the drops he needed… however…

Kirito was deep in thought.

He imagined himself on one knee asking Asuna out and she saying yes due to his bonus luck.

"Hey Kirito… would you mind going out with me?" Asuna asked him.

"Why yes… I would love to…" he said still deep in thought.

Then he realised what she said and what he said.

"To power up my sword!" she added after a second delay.

Kirito smiled… and then slumped against the wall.

Ainz was not sure what happened… but it seems Kirito had gone through some serious damage to his young heart

Ainz decided to leave for the night… but as insurance he installed on Asuna some 'data feelers'.

It was a new technique he developed… with this he could see through the eyes of another player and monitor some data such as emotion… if she was going through some high emotions he would be notified and thus help her out… as the only high emotion she would be feeling would be fear or something like that.

Ainz was not expecting what would happen next.

The dynamic duo rushed through town to use the luck bonus to upgrade her sword on the blacksmith.

They had a 95 percent chance of success... they kept going, she held to Kirito's hand "Lend me some of your luck"

 **Crack**

Asuna trusted companion… the Wind Fleuret +5… was destroyed.

Ainz felt it… the deep sadness and the sheer weight of the feeling of loss.

The sheer weight of the emotion was enough to make Ainz reel into the floor.

She was now crying silently… her heart was broken. Fear, sadness desperation, despair and shame.

Ainz on the other side of town was crying… he was reeling on the floor.

"Nee-chan…. It hurts…. Nee-chan… my heart… my heart… it feels like it's been ripped apart…. Nee-chan…" Ainz cried deliriously as he felt the emotion as Asuna felt them… waves washing over him as he fought the emotional pain he felt.

Stumbling he stood up.

"must… see nee-chan" Ainz said as he stood up… cancelling his feelers he pinged her location.

 **Elsewhere**

Kirito was suspicious… something was very wrong.

This event should not happen… there was a chance that it could but the chance was less than 2 percent.

Kirito walked about into town and used the hide skill and ducked into an alley.

He would find the solution to this mystery… come hell or high water and bring that girl her smile back.


	5. Chapter 5

Sword Art Overline

Chapter 5: 2nd floor woes (To heal a maiden's heart)/ revelation of a scam and mapping the dungeon!

Author notes: this is going to be a super long chapter… hope you all enjoy!

Kirito typed a message to Argo as he stalked the blacksmith, he was still doing business around after that failed attempt.

It was logical, a broken weapon would happen every now and again, but something was off.

He needed to find out what and thus he waited.

His hide skill ended soon enough and went into a cool down period and had to hide manually, skulking in the shadows and using what he learned from spy movies.

He followed the blacksmith around until they reached a pub.

He went over the statistics he knew.

Asuna's Wind Fleuret had a max capacity for upgrades of +8, however after reaching +5 the probabilities of success lowered somewhat, all upgrades had that gamble.

However her sword was a +4, the chance of failure was minimal, not to mention the luck buff they had on.

Something people needed to understand is that in SAO, the +number was a shortened system.

Meaning when you upgrade a weapon you are upgrading accuracy, sharpness, durability, weight… etc.

The trickiest part of SAO's weapon upgrading system. Every piece of equipment that could be powered up had a preset number of possible attempts. It wasn't the maximum level you could reach with the weapon, but the number of attempts. For example, a Small Sword, the starting weapon at the beginning of the first floor had a unique attempt, it could only go to a +1.

There was a 70 percent chance of success while a 30 on a failure.

A failure would be either not being able to upgrade at all or going back down. A +4 would become a +3.

That percentage could be changed by a couple factors too, such as the blacksmith's skill level and the quantity of materials. Considering what they had done their luck on upgrading should been on 95 percent.

He had a suspicion, could it be that he deliberately destroyed weapons? If so what would he gain? Was he being commissioned by someone who held a grudge perhaps? No, it wouldn't make sense… chances that they would use his services was slim.

He used his eavesdrop skill to hear from the other side of the door, the only way to listen in.

In SAO door were perfectly soundproofed and so you couldn't listen to anything save for yells, battle sounds or someone knocking on the door.

What he heard though completely destroyed those ideas.

The guy was in a party, possibly middle liners hoping to make it to the front lines.

To explain, SAO was divided on how players… adapt to this game.

Rear liners are those who have minimal or no combat ability, also called civilians.

Those make the majority of players, they stay on the first floor and starting cities and rarely venture out, save to make some Col for food and rent on easy quests that even they could do, thanks to Argo's strategy guide.

Middle liners are those who are more pro active in the game, they are not particularly skilled but they are not helpless either. Most of them venture out to farm mats from monsters or nature for business…. Those would be what they call craftsmen players, so far there are only very few and only blacksmiths, due to the discovery of this players would start making shops as soon as someone finishes the quest to activate it globally.

Middle liners did not fight boss monsters, that would be the job for the last classification.

Front liners, also known as Clearers, those players bear the heaviest death ratio of them all, they actively push themselves to discover locations and gather people like themselves to fight the floor boss.

Front liners were mostly the ones who used the services of blacksmith NPCs a lot, however now with the introduction of player blacksmiths the fail/success ratio could be changed!

NPCs had a fixed ratio to failure and success, it changed on the NPC doing it tough but it was a hassle to find one with high success rate, not to mention that info would soon find its way to the Argo guide and it will be flooded.

So Kirito continued to listen in and found it was probably just coincidence.

Then a different thought appeared.

Nezha taking the Wind Fleuret from Asuna. Accepting the materials and putting them into the forge with his right hand, sword in the left. When the forge was full of blue light, that meant that the materials used to enhance the blade were the correct ones as blue meant enhancement for accuracy, he pulled the sword from the scabbard and laid the blade into the fire. Once infused with that blue light, he moved it to the anvil and struck it with his hammer. A few seconds after that, the sword shone like a death scream, then shattered and disappeared.

He had watched the entire string of events. He couldn't believe that there had been some sleight of hand there. If he had to assume that deception had occurred, perhaps it was in the materials. But there was no way to mimic the bright blue light that flashed out of the forge-

THAT'S IT!

One moment… the one single moment that was invisible for both Asuna and himself.

It wasn't the materials that were falsified… no.

He looked at the digital clock readout on his HUD (Heads Up Display) and saw the time.

"There is still some time left! I got to hurry!" he said to himself as he sprinted as the hounds of hell were after him.

 **Asuna's inn room** **several minutes before**

Asuna was curled on her bed looking at her empty hand with a longing look.

She was being swallowed up by sorrow of losing her trusty companion.

 **Knock knock**

Who could it be?

Asuna tried her best to look presentable and opened the door.

It was Ainz, his face was scrunched in pain and tears could be seen on his face.

"Ne...nee-chan… please… don't be sad" he said as he clutched his heart.

"What?" she tried to lie to him.

He stared at her… his eyes glowing gold in the darkness, Asuna was unsure if it was due to their unnatural color or an ability.

"Your sword… your Wind Fleuret… I see… you lost her… your partner… so that's what I felt" Ainz muttered to himself.

He walked up to her.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her.

"I am sorry… so please… don't be sad… I will not leave you" he said.

"Until you get better… let me be your sword" Ainz said. "So… nee-chan… don't cry… a beautiful girl like you shouldn't mar your face with sadness… let me instead cry for you"

Asuna wrapped her arms around the young boy and cried.

"There there…" Ainz comforted the girl a few years older than him.

 **With Kirito**

"Only 10 minutes left. I can make it. I can make it" he shouted as he rushed to the inn.

Kirito's Agility stats was really put to the test.

He went to room 207 and knocked the door. He had 4 minutes left.

"Asuna, it's me I am coming in!" Kirito shouted.

Asuna got up to open the door, however...

He barged in a flash and grabbed her by the shoulders.

Her face reddened.

"quickly this is ultra emergency! do as I say now, we don't have much time!" Kirito shouted out.

"First, call up your window and set it to visible mode! Now!" he barked.

Asuna was confused but did as she was told.

"Wait… but I locked the door… how?" Asuna said as she remembered that tidbit.

"quickly… like what I did with Ainz at the pub use the "Materialize all" now" Kirito said.

She did so and all her items appeared.

Ainz covered his face with his hands as a bunch of female underwear and lingerie appeared on the room's floor.

Kirito then jumped in and rummaged about.

Ainz could literally feel Asuna "HATE" (Agro) value rising as he saw her shiver in indignation at seeing Kirito casually flinging her unmentionables about.

It even rose to palpable levels when a particular risqué pair landed on Ainz's head and then the young boy innocently inspected them and asked how she found any warmth on such a thin piece.

After a few scant seconds Kirito rose a pale green scabbard of a Wind Fleuret +4… Asuna's.

"No way…"

 **Minutes later**

Asuna was cradling her sword to her chest and smiling angelically.

"If you hadn't found my sword after doing that I think would have PKed you on the spot" Asuna said.

Kirito then thought that perhaps he had gone a step too far by ransacking the crown of delicate snow that was Asuna's undergarments on top of the pile. On the other hand, he still couldn't fathom why she would need so many of them. If his hazy memory served, there were enough of them that she could change every day for two weeks without reusing any. Yes, they were light enough that you could store a nearly infinite supply, but those weren't cheap. The silky smooth ones cost quite a pretty penny at the NPC shops, and surely that kind of scratch was better spent raising one of the properties of her armor– 

"So, I've done some self-examination," came a voice from the other side of the room. Kirito hurriedly sat up straight.

"y...yes?" Kirito said with trepidation.

"If the anger I'm feeling represents ninety-nine g, then my joy is a hundred g. Therefore, the one leftover g represents my gratitude to you," she said, light flashing in her eyes.

"So, um...why is it represented in g?" Kirito asked.

"Isn't it obvious? If my anger had been the greater force, I would have pummeled you to make up the difference." she said with an angelic smile.

"girls are scary" Ainz said as he shivered at how such a cute smile hid such darkness.

"Oh...so you're talking about g as in gravity, not gold? I...guess that makes sense." Kirito said a bit awkwardly.

Asuna asked Kirito to explain what had happened and how he came to this conclusion.

"it was a scam" Kirito said.

Ainz looked at her sword intently… should he do a soul bound type of data insertion on her sword so this would not happen ever again?

He did not know if this game had such a mechanic, but he knew of a fair amount of games that had.

Basically a soul bound item was (normally) a legendary weapon or armor that couldn't be traded or sold, and only the owner could use it.

He decided to ask Kirito if such mechanic was present in this game.

Kirito explained more in depth what had happened.

'It might be faster to show you than to explain," he said, swinging his hand to call up his own menu and hitting the visibility button. He touched the top and bottom of the screen and flipped it around until I got it to an angle that was easily visible to the 3 of us, then pointed out a spot.

"Right here. See how the right-hand cell in my equipment mannequin has an icon for my Anneal Blade +6?" he asked as Asuna nodded. He materialised his sword and dropped it… then the square where his blade would be was grayed out.

"This indicates that the equipped weapon has been dropped. It happens if you fumble the weapon in battle, or an enemy uses a disarm attack on you."

"Yes, I'm familiar. It can be quite alarming if you're not used to it." Asuna said.

Ainz grunted… he had that happen to him earlier.

"You can always stay calm and pick it up once you evade the next attack, but it's tricky at first. The Swamp Kobold Trappers in the middle of the first floor were the first to use disarms. I hear there were quite a few casualties around then..." Kirito said grimly.

"In Argo's strategy guide, she warns not to attempt to pick it up right away...When I had to fight them, I dropped a spare rapier first, almost like a good luck charm." Asuna said.

"I find it better to not let them do that… I spend a lot of time watching people get disarmed so I can tell when they will use the disarming skill by looks alone" Ainz said.

Thanks to his diving into the system of sword skills he was able to memorize the visual qués of over 100 different sword skills, which he then tested to see if there was any discrepancies.

There weren't much to his fortune and he taught anyone who cared to listen about the visual qués… he later sold the info to Argo for some cake.

Casualties had since dropped considerably.

"Asuna's idea is not someone who is used to games would have… that's quite a nice way to use lateral thinking" Ainz added.

Kirito nodded.

"lateral… thinking?" Asuna said not sure about the word.

"Why use a prescribed way when you can solve it just as easy in another way… basically solving a problem in a creative way" Kirito added.

Asuna understood, she solved the problem of her sword in a unique way for herself.

"But I digress. If you don't pick up the dropped weapon, it eventually goes into an Abandoned state, which gradually decreases its durability rating. Asuna, go ahead and pick up that sword." Kirito said.

She raised an eyebrow but dutifully stuck the Wind Fleuret onto her waist attachment point and bent down to his scabbard. Asuna lifted the simple one-handed longsword with both hands, grunting, "This is heavy. Am I doing it right?"

"That's good. Now take a look." Kirito poked at his window, still floating above the table. The cell with his Anneal Blade grayed out had gone empty the moment Asuna picked it up.

"In combat, this is called weapon-snatching. Unlike a disarm attack, snatching enemies don't show up until much later in the game. For a solo player, that can be deadly. There's a weapon skill modification called Quick Change that you'll have to get before you fight them...but that's not the point." He cleared his throat and attempted to get back on topic again. "You can give your equipped weapon to your friends, even when you're not in battle. Instead of a 'snatch' that's called a 'handover.' So anyway...if someone picks up your weapon or you hand it to them, the weapon cell in your menu goes blank. Including situations like the one where you gave the blacksmith your Wind Fleuret."

"...!"

She must have seen where he was taking this at last. Her eyes went wide, then filled with a sharp light.

"But here's the thing. The equipment cell might be empty, as though you're not equipping anything...but that Anneal Blade's equipper info hasn't been deleted. And the equipment rights are protected much more tightly than simple ownership rights. For example, if I take an unequipped weapon out of storage and give it to you, my ownership of that item disappears in just three hundred seconds–that's five minutes. As soon as it goes into someone else's inventory, it is owned by that player. But the length of ownership for an equipped item is far longer. It won't be overwritten until either three thousand six hundred seconds have passed, or the original owner equips a different weapon in that slot."

"So… nee-chan's mourning over her blade and not equipping anything else basically saved her… uh" Ainz stated.

Asuna's eyelashes dropped as she mulled over this information. Her response caught me by surprise."Meaning that if your main weapon gets snatched and you do a Quick Change to a backup weapon, you should put it in your left hand rather than your right?"

"Eh...?" Kirito was momentarily taken aback, but eventually understood her point. It was indeed true that if a monster stole the player's weapon and they put a backup in the same hand, the equipment right of the stolen weapon would vanish. If the player had to retreat for survival and couldn't immediately kill the monster to retrieve the weapon, the results could be disastrous the player was back in the safe haven of town, there would be virtually no way to get it back.

"Ah, I see...Yes, that's a good point. But it's a lot harder to swing a sword with your non-dominant hand." Even as he said it, though, he made a mental note to practice sword skills with his left hand.

"But that doesn't apply for me since I am ambidextrous!" Ainz said with a smirk, however he looked kinda droopy as it had been going on for a while and was rather late.

"And one other thing. When you barged into my room and forced yourself a peek at my equipment mannequin, that's what you were checking, yes? That I hadn't equipped another weapon in its place. So if that was the very first condition..." Asuna said.

He nodded slowly as she stared directly into my eyes. "Yes, that's right. The second condition was that it had to be within three thousand six hundred seconds of letting go: one hour. As long as those two conditions were fulfilled, we had a shot–one ultimate method of pulling back your equipment, no matter where it happened to be. Remember that you asked me how your supposedly shattered sword was in your item storage?"

"In reality, my sword wasn't shattered, and it wasn't in my inventory, either. So that's why..." She took a deep breath and resumed glaring up at me. "And your last-ditch method of bringing back my sword was the "In reality, my sword wasn't shattered, and it wasn't in my inventory, either. So that's why..." She took a deep breath and resumed glaring up at me. "And your last-ditch method of bringing back my sword was the MATERIALIZE ALL ITEMS command. And because there was not a second to spare, you had no choice but to invade my room and force me to flip through my menu. Is that what you're claiming?"

"Umm, I think that sums it up...I guess?" he trailed upward at the end in an attempt to sound innocent, but Asuna only snorted, unconvinced. Fortunately, she seemed more interested in getting to the bottom of the situation than holding Kirito responsible. She handed back the Anneal Blade and changed topics.

"So anyway...why was that materialize button buried so deep in the menus? It's almost like they don't want you to use it...And why does it have to be all of the items? If you could just select the items that aren't on hand already, there would be no need for that pile of my und...my **other** equipment."

"You just said the answer yourself. They want to make it harder to use."Kirito said.

"Huh...? Why would they do that?" she asked, shapely eyebrows squinting in suspicion. I shrugged.

"If I can give an educated guess… wouldn't it be so there is a balance to the game? If you could do it anytime and very easily then people wouldn't lose their items, reducing lethality in the game. However this game is now 'reality' and thus not as forgiving as it would be in a regular game… at least that's what I think I would do if I was Kayaba. It's a mechanic of the game, it helps… but is not a game breaker" Ainz said as his eyes drifted in and out.

Kirito mulled over this… in game development terms it made terrible amount of sense, seems like the kid is not a genius for nothing.

Asuna was not overly interested in the technicality of the system and so… "At any rate, now I understand the logic of how my sword came back," she said, taking a sip of her wine. When the glass left her lips, that dangerous light was back in her eyes. "But that's only half of the story, isn't it? After all, I saw the sword I gave the blacksmith shatter on top of that anvil. If the Wind Fleuret that came back was my original sword...what sword was it that broke into pieces?"

A very good question. Kirito nodded slowly, trying to piece together the fragments of information and suspicion into an easily explainable form.

"To be honest, I don't have a full explanation of that train of logic. What I can say for certain is this: At some point from the time you handed your Wind Fleuret to Nezha, to the time it shattered into pieces, he switched it out for another item of the same type. At first, I suspected that he'd found a way to intentionally destroy other players' weapons, but that wasn't it. He's the first blacksmith in Aincrad, and the first upgrade scammer..."

Upgrade scams, enchantment scams, forging scams, refinement scams.

The name varied depending on the title of the game, but it was a classic, traditional means of deception that had been around since the early days of MMORPGs,The method was simple. The blacksmith (or other type of crafter) put out a sign advertising his weapon upgrade service, charged his clients expensive fees, then embezzled the funds by pretending the upgrade attempt destroyed the item. In games where weapon destruction wasn't one of the failure states, they had a variety of other options to fool clients, such as replacing the item with the same one a single level lower, or just keeping the crafting materials for themselves without attempting to upgrade.

In the original pre-full-dive games played on a monitor, the player's weapon was completely lost from view as soon as they handed it over to the blacksmith. The entire process happened on the other player's screen, so there was no means of telling whether any fraud had taken place.

Leaning too heavily on such deception would quickly lead to the kind of bad reputation that kept any more players from using their services, but rare gear in MMOs could be incredibly valuable. Even the occasional bit of trickery might reap huge benefits. There were almost no bad rumors about Nezha, so the rate of his fraud must still be quite low. However…

"The problem is, this is the world's first VRMMO. Even after handing over the weapon, we can see it. It can't be easy to switch it out–in fact, it must be incredibly hard." his long explanation finally concluded, Asuna frowned and murmured, "I see...I thought I kept the sword in my sights the entire time after giving it to him. The blacksmith held my sword in his left hand and did all of the controls and hammering with his right. He couldn't possibly have opened a window, put my sword into storage, and brought out a fake."

"I absolutely agree. He had a number of pre-forged weapons on his store display, but the best ones were Iron Rapiers, and none were Wind Fleurets. So be couldn't have just switched them like that. However..." Kirito went deep in thought

"However?" Asuna egged him on.

"However, there was a brief point where my eyes left the sword. The time when Nezha tossed your materials into the forge and it started glowing blue. It was three seconds at the most. I wanted to make sure that he used all of the materials we spent so much time collecting..." Kirito trailed off. Asuna's hazel eyes went wide.

"Oh! I...I think I was watching the furnace the entire time... but only because I thought the blue flames were pretty." Asuna said looking a bit embarrassed at that childish thing.

"Um, okay. Anyway, we weren't watching the sword in his hand while it happened. I think anyone would be staring at the flames. The materials burn and melt and change into the color of the property, so it's a big show to those watching. I think he might be using that as misdirection, the way a magician would..." he said

"So he switched out the sword in the three seconds we were watching the forge? Without opening his menu?" She started to shake her head in disbelief but stopped just as quickly. "On the other hand, that's the only moment it could have happened. He must have pulled off some kind of trick in three seconds. I can't imagine what it is, but if we can just witness him doing the same thing again..."

"Agreed. Then we can watch his left hand the entire time. But that'll be difficult ..." Kirito said.

"Why?" Asuna asked

"Nezha must have noticed by now that the Wind Fleuret plus four he supposedly stole is gone. Meaning that the player he tricked–in this case, you–utilized the MATERIALIZE ALL command, because you probably saw through his deception. He'll be spooked, and either not set up his shop for a while, or if he does, he won't attempt that scam again." Kirito said as he put his hand on his chin thinking once more.

"...I see. He didn't seem to be that excited about it to begin with...In fact..."

Asuna paused, but the two knew exactly what she was about to say. In fact, he didn't seem like the kind of person to commit fraud.

"Yeah...I agree," I said. She glanced over at Kirito and smiled shyly. I went on, my voice quiet. "We'll lay low and gather information. Both on the switch-out trick and on Nezha himself. Either way, we've got to get back to the front line tomorrow." Kirito said.

They looked at Ainz who was fighting the waves of sleep getting to him.

"Now that I notice… what is Ainz doing here?" Kirito asked.

"Well, he came here crying and tried to console me… did you tell him anything?" Asuna asked. As she placed the now sleeping Ainz on her bed.

Kirito shook his head. "I didn't have any time" he said.

The both wondered how Ainz knew of this.

That is a mystery that was not as important, and so was forgotten.

"Yes, you're right. From what I heard in Marome today, they're going to challenge the last field boss tomorrow morning, then enter the labyrinth in the afternoon." Asuna said.

"Wow, that's quick...Who's leading the battle force?"Kirito asked.

"Kibaou and someone else...named Lind."

He recognized the first name she said, of course, but the second was unfamiliar.

"Lind was in Diavel's party during the first-floor boss fight. He used a scimitar." Her words seemed to be coming from miles instant the words hit my brain, I heard his tearful scream in my ears screaming condemnation of being a beater."

"Yes. It seems like he took over as Diavel's second in command. He even dyed his hair blue and his armor silver, just like Diavel's."

He shut my eyes, envisioning the knight in his blue-and-silver finery… they were glad that Diabel had survived thanks to Ainz unique sword skill and quick thinking.

Seems like someone got himself a fan boy.

"Between Kibaou and the other guy as leader, I'm guessing they won't save a space for me in the boss fight. Will you participate, Asuna?" he asked her.

She was a solo player, just like both Ainz and Kirito, while the two traveled together they also spend a lot of time apart as Ainz completed a mysterious quest that was flagged only for him.

Her long brown hair shook left and right.

"I took part in the scouting of the boss, but it was just a big bull. Didn't seem like it needed too many, as long as they were well coordinated. Plus they started getting really bossy about who would get the last attack bonus, so I told them straight out that I wouldn't be in the battle."

Kirito grimaced to himself; he could practically see the scene floating before my eyes.

"I see. You're right; that boss isn't anything to worry about. The real problem is the floor boss..."

"It's a problem?" she asked, to the point.

He grimaced again. "Of course. I mean, it stands to reason that the second-floor boss would be tougher than the first."

"Oh...right. Of course." Asuna said feeling foolish

"His attack isn't all that high, but he uses special skills on you. It's possible to practice a defensive strategy on the auto-generating mobs in the labyrinth, but..." Kirito said feeling unsure.

Diavel–secretly a beta tester– he'd make sure that information made it to all the other front-line players. But even without him, the only other reliable source of beta info was Argo's strategy guides, and that was a problem. As we learned in that terrible battle four days ago, the boss's attack patterns could have been altered since the beta.

"Let's ignore the blacksmith for now and spend tomorrow on practice," she suggested.

He nodded automatically, lost in thought. "Yeah, good idea..."

"South gate of Urbus, seven o'clock tomorrow morning?" Asuna said.

"Sounds good..."

"And make sure you get a full night's sleep tonight. If you're late, you go back to a full hundred g." Asuna warned.

"Yeah, I know–wait, what?" he tuned back into the conversation and raised my head. Across the table from him, her normal spirits recovered with the return of her sword, Asuna set her morning alarm.

"Wait… what about Ainz?" Kirito asked.

"Well… he is spend and it would be rather mean to wake him up. Tell you what, he stays with me and I will take him there too" Asuna said.

Kirito shrugged and left, he did not want to upset his g balance more than necessary.

 **The next morning**

The enemy was the same bull they fought earlier and thus lost interest in it. They decided to instead go to the dungeon and scout ahead. Ainz was in charge of snacks and beverages on this trip.

"If this was the real world… wouldn't it be like we are going on a picnic?" Ainz asked innocently.

Asuna and Kirito looked away from each other.

They entered and managed to get to the second floor and then…

"That...was a bull!"

Two hours had passed since Asuna, Ainz and Kirito reached the second-floor labyrinth, the first players in Aincrad to set foot inside of it.

Kibaou and Lind's parties were probably down on the first level of the tower, gnashing their teeth over the ransacked chests they found, but if he had to be stuck with the "evil beater" role, might as well reap the benefits. The initial locations of the treasure chests were about 80 percent unchanged from the beta, so he steered us from one to the other, with the occasional battle in between. Once we reached the second floors, we finally met one of the true masters of the labyrinth–a Taurus.

"Well, I guess they're closer to human than bull," Kirito admitted. He had no idea why Asuna was so upset about this. "But this is pretty much what minotaurs are like in every MMO. So people call them 'bulls' or 'cows' as a nickname"

"...Minotaurs? Like from Greek mythology?" The anger in her eyes subsided slightly. It seemed that she had a fondness for topics related to studying and learning. Kirito wasn't particularly well versed in mythology, but his little sister had always liked the stories, and he had read them to her when she was young. He nodded and tried to recall some nuggets of information.

"Y-yeah, that's the kind. The legendary minotaur lived in a, dungeon on the island of Crete–they called it the labyrinthos in Greek. Anyway, the hero Theseus delves into the dungeon and kills the minotaur. It's a very game-like scenario, so the minotaur has been a classic RPG enemy type for years and years. In this game, they take out the "mino" part and just call them tauruses."

"Well, that makes sense. Isn't the mino in minotaur from King Minos of Crete?" Asuna said.

"Huh? So you're saying that calling it 'mino', for short would be incorrect?" Kirito asked.

"Yes... After Minos died, he became the judge of the dead in Hades. So it's probably best that you don't call them that." Ainz said inserting himself into the conversation, he also liked mythology a lot, he remembered a paper he did on the Argonauts and Medea of Colchis as well. Those things seemed like a lifetime away now.

This discussion seemed to have taken the edge off of Asuna's anger, so Kirito tried to take advantage of the opportunity.

"So, erm...Asuna-san, what was it about that mino–I mean, taurus, that didn't meet your approval...?" He asked.

She glared at him side-eyed. "It wasn't wearing, well...hardly anything at all! Just a tiny little scrap of cloth around the waist. It was practically sexual harassment! I wish the harassment code would kick in and send it to the prison of Blackiron Palace."

"Ah...I see." The lower tauruses did indeed feature minimal clothing compared to the kobolds and goblins of the first floor. If you removed the bull head, they were basically nearly naked muscle men–quite a shock to (he assumed) a pampered rich girl from an all girls' school. But that left one big problem. One of the chests he'd just opened had a set of armor called Mighty Straps of Leather. Not only did it have excellent defense, it also granted a strength boost. However, when equipped, it turned the wearer's torso naked except for a few **strategically** placed leather straps. No other clothes or armor could be worn over or under it. Kirito figured the dungeon was a discreet enough place for it, and was planning to change the next time we found a safe room, but Asuna's reaction to the taurus causing him to reconsider.

Still, it was a shame to waste such a great piece of loot. Should he offer it to her, or banish it for having no value to the party? "Hey, Asuna...I got a strap-style armor with magical effects from a chest back there."

Suddenly, her eyes were three times as frosty as when she had dispatched the taurus.

"Yes, and?" Asuna said, Kirito shrinked back, unable to say anything.

"Oh… let me have it! I could use some boosts" Ainz said.

"A… are you sure?" Kirito asked.

Asuna glared at Kirito but saw Ainz was serious.

"ok… let me send you a trade request" Kirito said hesitantly.

Ainz received the item and promptly equipped it.

Asuna blushed and had a slight a nosebleed.

She also took many screen captures as she panted heavily, discretely.

 **Later**

We defeated four more tauruses after that, but they were timed to pop at set intervals, so you couldn't hunt tons of them even if you wanted. Our inventories were bulging with loot from the monsters and chests we'd run across, and luckily for us, we were able to leave the labyrinth without running into any other players.

At a safe zone near the entrance, Kirito flipped open the map tab and found that they had almost entirely filled in the blank space for the first two levels. If he turned that data into a scroll and sold it, I could make some pretty good cash, but the evil beater wasn't enough of a merchant to make a business out of map data. He decided to offer it to Argo the Rat free of charge.

In a way, it didn't seem fair. By tomorrow, Argo would be selling the latest strategy guide out of the nearest town, based on intel provided by me and the other former beta testers, and he'd have to spend five hundred Col for it. But I couldn't complain too much.

She claimed that the funds she earned selling the guide to the top players went into producing a free version for middle-zone folks who were still catching up.

He switched tabs and shot her an instant message with the map data, then yawned widely and looked up at the sky. Looming over the overgrown jungle was not actual sky, but the bottom of the third floor. Yet the sunset rays coming from the outer perimeter of Aincrad cast that lid overhead in a brilliant, beautiful orange.

"Today is December ninth...a Friday. It's got to be winter on the other side by now," Asuna murmured.

Kirito gave that some thought. "I read in some article that, depending on the floor, some places in Aincrad are actually modeled after the current weather conditions. Maybe if we climb a little bit higher, it'll really be winter."

"I don't know whether I want that or not. Oh, but..." She trailed off.

Kirito turned to look at her. Her lips were pursed, but he couldn't tell if she was feeling angry or shy.

"It was just an idea. What if we reach a floor with proper seasons by Christmas, and it snows that day?" Asuna mused

"Oh...good point. It's already December. By Christmas would mean...fifteen days left. I sure hope we finish this floor by then..." Kirito said hopefully

"Well, that's not very ambitious of you. I want to be through here within a week–no, five days. I'm exhausted from all these cows." Asuna said.

"Oxhausted?" Kirito supplied… making a horrible pun.

Ainz winced.

"I think I actually took a hit to my HP from that bad pun nii-san" Ainz said.

Kirito hung his head in shame. "I know"

We walked for twenty minutes down the stone path through the jungle, evading battles whenever we could, and only stopped for breath once we reached the limits of Taran, the village that would serve as base for the boss raid.

As he suspected, the main street was already packed with players. Once the Bullbous Bow that blocked the path was defeated, many who'd been staying in Marome made their way here, be carefully removed the black leather coat and covered half his face with the bandanna that Asuna loved to hate.

She couldn't complain, though; she was wearing her own hooded cape low over her face. Unfortunately, her reason and mine were almost polar opposites.

"So, um...I'm going to go meet Argo in a little bit," Kirito muttered as we walked along the side of the street. Asuna's nod was barely visible beneath her hood.

"That's perfect. I have my own reason...my own business to do with her. I'll join you." Asuna said amicably.

"A-ahh." Kirito said.

He had no reason whatsoever to be afraid of Asuna and Argo in the same place, which made it very strange that he felt a sudden panic. He tried to hide the shiver that ran down his back by showing her to the bar where we'd meet up.

But before I could, a sound hit my ears. I nearly missed it at first, so I focused and caught it directly.

The regular clanging of metal on metal. Not as melodious as a musical instrument–tough and hardy, like a tool.

"–!"

Asuna and I shared a look and turned together in the direction of the sound: the eastern plaza of Taran. We proceeded quickly toward the plaza, stifling the urge to sprint. When we got there, our expectations were not betrayed.

A carpet was laid out with an array of metal weapons and a simple wooden sign. A portable forge and anvil. Seated on a folding chair, swinging away with his hammer, was short blacksmith. It was Nezha. A member of the Legend Braves, and Aincrad's first upgrade scammer.

"The nerve he's got. You saw through his deception yesterday, and instead of laying low, he's set up in the latest town," Asuna whispered with distaste from the shadow of a pillar.

Kirito was going to agree but changed his tack at the last second.

"Actually...Maybe the fact that he's here in Taran is a sign of caution. I mean, he has no way of knowing that we'd be here at the same time. Maybe he's just avoiding Urbus for now, since that's where his fraud was discovered."

"It doesn't change the fact that he's got nerve. I mean, if he's going to change towns just to set up shop again...it means he's still going to do his weapon-switching trick, right?"

She silently mouthed the words "weapon-switching," then bit her lip. There was anger in her face, of course, but also a number of other emotions.

Kirito's skill at reading expressions was near zero, so he had no way of knowing exactly what was on her mind. But it seemed to him that there was something like sadness shining in those eyes, within the darkness of her hood.

"Nee-chan" Ainz said as he tugged at her robe, snapping her back.

 **Later with Argo**

"Hmmm" said Argo smirking.

"It's not like that," Kirito replied.

If the unspoken parts of those statements were to be filled in, they would look like this: Hmmm. Kirito the former tester and Asuna the solo player are working as a team. How much can I sell that nugget for?

It's not like that. We're only temporarily traveling together, and not as a team or whatever.

Of course, denying the intent or definition did not change the fact that we were indeed working together. And that activity had begun when we met at the east plaza of Urbus the previous afternoon–twenty-seven continuous hours of companionship.

He couldn't blame her for assuming there was something deeper going on, but in my personal dictionary, a "party of two" and a "team" were very different things, not to mention that they had Ainz in tow as well.

A party could come together spontaneously for the sake of a battle or two, then be team was designed to work together, each player fine-tuning their skills based on the presence of the other. This translated to choosing a particular equipment loadout and skillset that made up for the weaknesses of the other player so as to create attack combos that could take down difficult mobs–not so we could each attack our own targets (as Asuna, Ainz and he did against the wasps).

It was only once you reached that step that I considered it to be a team, and by that definition, Asuna and himself would probably never be a team. Even ignoring all of the beater baggage, Asuna put an incredible amount of craft and pride into her fencing skills, and I couldn't see her abandoning that fine-honed technique to prioritize her teamwork with him.

Ainz's playstyle however was adaptable, he prefers fast and heavy attacks and then going to a blind spot to recover and get a few seconds to let the cool down of a skill or two take place and continue doing so, exploiting any gaps in the monster's defence, he was an absolute pragmatist who put everything on harming the mob as much as possible in as little time in order to prevent unnecessary player deaths.

Kirito had no idea how much of that explanation–more like excuse–got through, so he sat down across from Argo with an innocent look on her face, waited for his temporary party companion to sit down, then ordered a black ale. Asuna ordered a fruit cocktail cut with soda water, and the NPC waiter left for ten seconds before returning with the drinks. With that kind of speed, it felt as though they should dispense with the employee altogether and have the glasses just appear on the table, but I supposed the game's creator felt it was a necessary touch. NPC employees didn't cost real money, anyway.

We lifted our drinks, as did Argo, who shot Kirito an encouraging look. He cleared his throat and announced, "Erm...to reaching the second-floor labyrinth!"

"Cheers!"

"...Cheers."

"Cheers!"

The enthusiasm was not quite shared by all, but at least we were on the same page. Kirito drained half of his mug of beer–they called it ale in the game, but he didn't understand the difference. It was the same sour, bitter carbonated drink he remember tasting at his mother's permission in real life, but it was strangely satisfying after a long day of racing around the wilderness and dungeons. Though from what he understood, the adult players of SAO thought there was no reason for alcohol that didn't get you drunk.

In that sense, it seemed obvious that Argo, who gulped down her entire mug of foamy yellow liquid and exhaled with satisfaction, was probably another teenager who wasn't fixated on the alcohol part of the drink. But there was no way to be sure. In fact, it was nearly impossible to guess her age, even if there were no familiar whisker stripes painted on those cheeks.

Argo slammed her empty cup onto the table and immediately ordered another.

"Five days from the opening of the gate to reaching the labyrinth. That was quick."

"Compared to the first floor, sure. Plus, we had lots of players over level 10 because it took so long the first time. The original level required to beat the second floor was more like 7 or 8, right?"

"Well...maybe from a numerical standpoint. But that's just the point at which it becomes beatable." She lifted the second mug of ale to her lips, and Asuna filled the silence.

"How many attempts did it take to defeat the second-floor boss in the beta?" She asked.

"Hmm. We got wiped out at least ten times, and that was only the attempts that I participated in...But the first time was pure recklessness. I was only level 5."

He didn't mention that he did it hoping to score the LA bonus.

"Let me guess, you tried to get the LA bonus uh? That would be so you" Ainz said with a smirk.

Kirito looked away.

"I think when we actually did succeed, the raid's average level was over 7." he quickly said trying to hide the fact that Ainz hit on the mark.

"Ahh...But this time, it'll be at least level 10." Argo said.

Kirito checked the party HP gauge. He'd earned a level up thanks to our hunting of the minos–er, tauruses–in the labyrinth, so I was up to eighteen. Asuna claimed to be twelve. Most likely Lind and Kibaou's teams, the main muscle of the raid party, would be about the same.

"Yeah...I bet it'll be over 10. Statistically, that's a high enough level...but floor-boss battles don't follow the same rules as wimpy mobs." Asuna warned.

The battle against Illfang the Kobold Lord seemed like it had happened ages ago by now. Our average level was far higher than it had been during the beta test. Our leader, Diavel the knight, was level 12, just like her.

That did not stop the kobold king's katana skills from nearly draining all of Diavel's HP. The sheer firepower of a boss's attacks rendered the "safe range" of levels meaningless.

Asuna and Kirito thought in silence as Argo emptied three quarters of her second mug and said, "Plus, this boss is more about having good equipment than a high level."

"Ainz's Odachi has good stats, not to mention…" Kirito left the rest unsaid.

"Oh yeah, that" Asuna said as she looked the other way.

Argo looked at both, there was something here.

Ainz looked a bit pouty.

"So, what's the story here?" Argo said.

Kirito smirked "It will cost you 1k Col" he said flipping the script on her.

She grunted and was torn between knowing this and having to dish that amount of cash.

She decided to not buy the info.

"Anyways, here is the map data" Kirito said handing her the collected map data info to Argo.

"Thanks again, Kii-bou. Like I always say, if you want the proper value of this information..."

"No...I'm not trying to make a business out of map data. I couldn't sleep at night if I knew players were dying because they couldn't afford maps. However, I do have a job with a condition I want you to do for me in return."

"Ohh? Why don't you tell Big Sister what you want?"

She casted a sidelong glance at him. He could feel some kind of waves radiating off of Asuna, but was too afraid to look, so he focused his eyes on Argo.

"I'm sure you're aware of them already..." I lowered my voice and looked around the bar. The entrance was at the end of a narrow alleyway, and no other players had come in. "I want info on a team called Legend Braves that took part in this morning's fight against the Bullbous Bow. All their names and how they got together."

"Ahh. And...your condition?"

"I don't want anyone to know that I'm looking for information about them. Especially the people in question."

The scariest thing about Argo the Rat is that not only did she not practice client confidentiality, she actually made it her motto that every buyer's name was another product to sell. So normally, there was no way I could buy information on the Legend Braves in total secrecy. Argo would follow her own rules and go straight to the Braves, asking if they wanted to buy the name of the person snooping into their business. Of course, I could pay her more than what they offered in order to keep my name out of it, but it would still let them know that someone was asking about them. That was what I wanted to avoid.

My condition was that I wanted her to collect information on the Braves without making any kind of contact. It was in direct conflict with Argo's motto and principles.

Thankfully, Kirito had a secret weapon just in case.

With a gentle nudge he prompted Ainz.

"Please nee-chan? Can you do it for me?"

Ainz said those words with his big puppy eyes.

She twisted her curly hair with a finger as she mulled it over, she blushed and hid her face deeper in her cloak then shrugged and said okay with surprising ease.

But Kirito's relief only lasted a split second.

"Just remember this: Big Sister prioritized her feelings for Ainz-bou over her rules of business."

Again, he felt a burning sensation emanating from the right, and froze solid. Argo never let the smile leave her face. She was aware at what Kirito pulled, as was Asuna, who did not approve the use of such cuteness for such things.

"Now, what did you want with me, A-chan?"

Ten minutes later, Asuna, Ainz and himself were back at the eastern plaza of Taran.

As a village, the scale of Taran was much smaller than the main town of Urbus. However, it shared the same basic construction in being carved down out of a flat mountaintop, with only the outer walls left standing. Therefore, it had at least twice the vertical space of any village built on flat plains.

The circular plaza was no exception, surrounded by tall buildings in every direction. But most of them were not NPC shops like inns or item stores, and there were no player-owned homes yet, so anyone could walk in or out houses as squats instead of paying for an inn. The biggest difference was that an NPC-run inn offered full system protection on its rooms.

Of course, while it was impossible to hurt anyone in one of these places, there was always that uncertainty about sleeping without a lock, and the beds were painfully hard. He'd tried them out a few times when trying to skimp on expenses, and barely got a wink of sleep–he bolted to his feet every time he heard a noise inside the room or outside in the street. It was truly unfair; his real body was probably in some safe, sanitized hospital, with all of his senses disconnected from their external organs, but was still terrorized by awful beds and outside noise in this virtual world.

After he'd suffered enough, he finally swore off of such frugality, and had been staying in proper inns or NPC homes ever since.

But there were other uses for an empty home than just sleeping. You could have a meeting in private, divvy up loot–or spy on someone.

Like they were planning to do.

"This is a good angle," Asuna said from the chair in front of the window, looking down at the plaza below, but careful not to get too close.

"It's probably the best spot you can get. Straight behind him, the angle would be too extreme to have a good idea of what's happening. I'm gonna set the dinner down here." Kirito placed eight steamed buns of uncertain filling he'd bought from a street vendor on top of the round table. Their skin was the usual milky white, and nothing seemed out of order with the scent of the rising steam. In fact, they looked good. The official item name was "Taran Steamed Bun."

Asuna turned away from the source of the clanging outside and casted a doubtful look at the steamed buns.

"What's...inside of those?"

"Dunno. But it's a cow-themed floor, so I'd guess it's probably beef? By the by, in western Japan, when they talk about steamed meat buns, they mean beef. It's in eastern Japan that the generic term means pork." Kirito answered.

"And is this town western or eastern?" she asked exasperatedly.

He apologized for the pointless trivia and pushed the pile toward Asuna.

"Go on while they're hot."

"...Very well."

She removed the leather glove from her hand and took the bun from the top of the pile. Kirito hurriedly grabbed one of my own as did Ainz.

We'd been in the dungeon since this morning, and hadn't had time to stop for a snack after the **incident** , so he was nearly starving. If our avatars exhibited biological processes other than emotion, his stomach would have gurgled all through our meeting with Argo. He opened his mouth wide and was about to stuff the steaming treat into mouth, when–

"Nyaak!"

A strangled shriek hit their ears and looked over in surprise. Asuna was sitting frozen in her chair, the steam bun held in both hands.

The large, five-inch bun was missing one small bite–and the opening had squirted a thick cream-colored liquid across her face and neck.

She stayed dead still, properly chewing the bite she already took while resisting the impulse to cry, then finally spoke in a soft voice.

"...So the filling is warm custard cream...and some kind of sweet-sour fruit..."

"..."

"Nii-san… isn't this sexual harassment?" Ainz asked.

"..."

Asuna looked at Kirito.

He swallowed hard.

"If...if it turns out you ate this during the beta test and knew what was inside, and intentionally didn't tell me what it was...then I may not be able to stop myself from what comes next..."

"I swear to you that I did not know. Absolutely, positively, categorically."

He took a small handkerchief out of his belt pouch and handed it to her.

Fortunately, "mess" effects here would disappear in only a few moments, even if left alone, and wiping them with any item categorized as cloth made them disappear entirely. With each mess, the durability of the cloth would fall, but I'd heard rumors of a magic handkerchief that could be used forever. Mess effects caused by mobs or special terrain often contained their own debuff effects, so an unlimited handkerchief would be really handy to have. If only it weren't such a rare piece of loot…

"Mm."

Kirito was shaken from his reverie by the return of my handkerchief. After a few seconds of wiping, Asuna's face was free of cream.

She gave me one last glare, turned back to the window, and announced, "I'll cook my own food the next time we have a stakeout. I'd rather not have to eat something terrible like this again."

He felt tempted to point out that with a Cooking skill of zero, she couldn't make anything that wasn't terrible. But even as a fourteen-year-old, and somewhat antisocial, was smart enough to know he shouldn't. Instead he gave her a forced smile and opined, "Th-that sounds great."

"I would like to taste nee-chan's cooking too!" Ainz said.

Ainz now had extra incentive to get into the taste engine database!

Two arrows shot forward and wiped the smile off my face.

"When did I say, 'I'll cook my own food...for you?'" Asuna said to Kirito.

"You didn't," he admitted sheepishly.

When he actually tried the cooled-off Taran steamed bun, it wasn't bad...It was pretty good, actually. But only as a dessert.

The outer skin was soft and chewy, and the cream inside was smooth and firm and not too sweet, the perfect match for the sour, strawberry-like fruit inside. He suspected that the preset flavor values for the bun were meant to resemble a strawberry cream pastry, but through developer error or some whim of the system, it was sold heated. Asuna's mood improved eventually–she even ate two of the buns.

That was all well and good, but unlike the buns, the actual purpose of our stakeout was turning out to be fruitless. The entire point of doing this, of course, was to monitor Nezha the blacksmith and attempt to discover the means of his weapon-switching trick.

His business was thriving, but nearly all of the requests were maintenance repairs, and only two players in the hour that we watched asked him to upgrade their weapons. Both of those attempts were successful. I suspected that it was because they were only mid-rank weapons, but it was starting to make me doubt the possibility that there was any deception at all.

"We need a bait" Ainz proposed.

Yes, that made sense, he wouldn't do that for any regular weapon, it had to be an expensive rare item, one with a low drop rate.

Ainz offered to use his Odachi, but it was too a rare of a weapon, so much in fact that people **knew** that only Ainz had that weapon.

It became iconic of Ainz and thus was too well known, not to mention it's name would be a dead giveaway.

'Illfang's Odachi' +5

It was, without a doubt the most powerful weapon currently available.

The drop rate for it was less than 2 percent and only under certain conditions.

Ainz managed to fulfill them by breaking the sword, a feat that was thought to be near impossible.

Ainz skill made a concentrated attack similar to 'linear' but with the power of sonic leap and vertical in one.

People tried to imitate Ainz's feat but were unable to do so, many players were jealous of a kid having such a (currently) OP weapon.

That idea was out.

"How about that other blade? The Anneal Blade + 4 that I have in stock?" Ainz supplied.

True, Ainz did the same quest as Kirito and obtained that blade as well, it was pretty good but his upgrade on it was geared towards durability and sharpness with some on accuracy, while Kirito's was only on durability and weight.

They had the same blade, but had different specs, due to their different play styles.

Then they decided to use it as bait.

They first needed to see how this was going on, so they waited for another player to fall victim to this scam, both Asuna and Kirito waited and watched for the opportunity.

It took a while, it was Asuna who called to alert them.

"Kirito."

He blinked, snapped out of his speculations. His eyes focused and saw that the plaza below was shrouded in night, and few players were still going to and from.

One player walked directly across the circular plaza. He wore metal armor that reflected the light of the lampposts, and a dark blue shirt–clearly the uniform of Lind's group, the top team among the front-line players.

Asuna and I watched with bated breath as he approached Nezha's smith shop and removed his sword from his waist attachment. Its length and shape identified it as a one-handed longsword.

But it was slightly shorter and wider than Kirito's Anneal Blade.

He couldn't be sure because of the distance and darkness, but the large knuckle guard appeared to be that of a Stout Brand. That was a broadsword, a sub-category of one-handed swords that prioritized attack strength over speed. It was about as rare as a Wind Fleuret, if not slightly higher.

"Certainly good enough to be a target for his switcheroo," Asuna whispered. He was surprised that she'd identified it at a glance, but I didn't let it show.

"Yeah. Now, whether he asks for maintenance or an upgrade..."

There was at least fifty feet in between us at the southwestern side of the plaza, and the outdoor blacksmith shop at the northwest edge.

The Search skill's parameter adjustment brought several details into focus, but it was much too far to hear a conversation at normal volume.

"Do you know that guy's name from the Lind team?" he asked. Asuna thought it over. "I think his name is Shivata."

"With a V? Not Shibata?" Ainz asked.

"It was spelled 'S-h-i-v-a-t-a.' Seems pretty clear to me."

"...All right, then."

We both practiced the foreign sound of the letter V by biting our lower lips. Meanwhile, Nezha and Shivata had finished their negotiation, and the Stout Brand changed hands, sheath and all.

This was the important point. We craned as close as possible to the window without being visible from the plaza and focused on the blacksmith's hands. Inevitably, our shoulders and even hair brushed up against each other, but the proud fencer would certainly understand, given the circumstances.

If it was a maintenance request, Nezha would remove the sword and place it against the small grindstone affixed to the side of his anvil. But he turned away from his client and reached out with his right hand to one of the many leather sacks on the carpet. Those sacks presumably contained different types of crafting materials. Meaning…

"An upgrade!" Kirito hissed.

Asuna nodded vigorously and whispered, "The left hand! Keep your eyes on his left hand!"

She didn't have to tell him. He kept my eyes fixed on that left hand, fighting the natural urge to follow the movement of his right.

Shivata's broadsword hung from Nezha's hand, still in the sheath. There was nothing unnatural about the position or angle of his arm.

Very close to the sword was a display of premade weapons for sale, but there was no way he could switch them. All of the display weapons were common iron weapons; there was not a single rare weapon among them, and certainly not another Stout Brand. Besides, dropping the sword onto the carpet and lifting a nearby weapon would draw too much attention. I couldn't imagine that we'd have missed such an action when the Wind Fleuret was nearly stolen…

Nezha's left hand was completely still, holding the broadsword, while the right hand did all the work. He picked out all of his materials from the leather sacks and tossed them into the forge next to the anvil The dozen or so items burst into flame and eventually melted into one big lump–he assumed. He wasn't actually watching. At any rate, it was the highlight of the upgrading process. For an instant, the deep red light that signified a Heaviness upgrade shone from the forge, then subsided into the waiting state.

"...!"

Every muscle in my his body twitched.

At the same moment the red light flared, Nezha's left hand did something. Asuna must have sensed it as well, because our shoulders jumped.

"Did he...?"

"The sword..."

We kept staring but couldn't finish our sentences. That brief flash of light, barely half a second, was enough to blind us from the exact sight we needed to witness.

As he watched, teeth grinding, the blacksmith gingerly raised the Stout Brand. If he had indeed done something to it, the sword looked absolutely identical to the one Shivata gave him.

He grabbed the hilt with his right hand and slowly pulled the sword out, then placed the thick blade into the red flames of the forge. After a few seconds, all of the light transferred to the weapon. He placed it on the anvil, picked up his smithing hammer with his right hand, and began striking the sword. Five. Eight...Ten.

Just as we feared, the dark gray blade of the Stout Brand shattered into pieces. This time, neither of us missed it.

"...What now?" Asuna asked, watching the quiet plaza from the windowsill.

It was clear what she was referring to. Shivata showed remarkable restraint in bottling up his anger and disappointment, and left with minimal complaint to Nezha. Asuna was wondering if we should track him down and reveal the existence of the deception.

Ainz shook his head "if we did so he would be alerted and go into hiding… he would move elsewhere, and also because you have no tangible proof he could decry your actions as harmful to his business, that would make you take a social hit that you can't afford, you are in thin ice for being friendly with Kirito-nii, so until we get proof for ourselves we can't move on it yet" Ainz said feeling bad for the poor man's loss.

"not only that" Kirito added "What if say… another player he wronged decided to take matters into his own hands? Waited for him to exit the safe zone and took justice into his own hands?"

The first PK.

In other games it wouldn't be so bad, it would be encouraged as well.

In here, that would be tantamount to murder.

There was another problem, one that Asuna made apparent now.

"Wait, that's not the only problem, if they keep doing this and sell the rare items they could accumulate a lot of Col right? Wouldn't that also mean that they could upgrade their gear and or buy new one that is stronger?"

Kirito's mouth was open as this new info made him realise this.

There are more 'efficient' ways of powering yourself up, one would go the honest way, fighting monsters and getting loot, but you could also go renegade, stealing from players as well as scamming them.

Kirito knew that even if his blade and status was higher, should the Legend Braves keep going at this, they would be unstoppable.

Kirito did not like this at all.

Of course, swindling weapons only earned them cor and the item itself, not experience or skill points. But as Asuna had said, with enough money, there was no limit on how much you could power up your gear.

He had bumped his main weapon up to +6, but his armor was currently averaging around +3. Against a player with fully upgraded armor, even at a lower level, there was no way he could win.

In other words, allowing the Legend Braves to continue in their weapon fraud would be tantamount to allowing the creation of a group of players stronger than me and unbound by rules or morals.

"...I'm sorry. It took me until just now to realize how serious this is," he murmured. The fencer looked at me suspiciously.

"Why would you say sorry?"

"Well, you almost had your sword stolen, right? And this whole time, I've only been half-concerned, as if it was someone else's problem..."

The words emerged naturally, without thinking, but for some reason, Asuna scowled even harder, blinked a few times, then yanked her head in the other direction, angrily.

"There's no need to apologize. It's not as though you and I are total strangers...I mean, um, we know each other and we're party members, but there's nothing more than...arrgh! Look what you did! You're acting so weird, I'm all confused!"

He thought that he was more confused than she was, but before he could respond, she looked out the window and her eyes narrowed. "That carpet..."

"Huh...?"

"So keeping your items from wasting away isn't its only function."

He turned to look at the east plaza of Taran. In the northwest corner, Nezha had finished packing away all his tools and was now fiddling with the pop-up menu on his Vendors Carpet. It started rolling itself up, and the assortment of objects on top of it was automatically sucked into storage.

"Hey...Do you suppose he's using that function to switch the weapons?"Asuna asked.

Kirito shook his head instantly. "No, that's not possible. The carpet's absorption ability has to be activated via the menu, like he's doing now, plus it swallows up everything on top of the carpet. You couldn't have it take just one sword and spit another one out...in...exchange..."

He trailed to a stop.

The Vendor's Carpet's ability to store items could not be used to exchange them.

However, what if he used his own storage...meaning, the inventory tab of his main menu? I rolled away from the window and slumped to my knees.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Asuna asked. He didn't reply. He brought up the menu with his right hand and switched to the item list. As he had done the last night when he showed Asuna the equipment mannequin, he tapped the top and bottom edges of the window to make it adjustable, then lowered it down until it was almost stuck to the floor–right below where my left hand would dangle if he let it hang.

Lastly, he pulled the Anneal Blade, sheath and all, off his back and held it in my dangling left hand. I didn't have a folding chair, but he was about the same distance off the ground as Nezha was when he accepted the weapon from his customer.

Asuna held a deep breath, understanding what I was about to try. I looked up at her face and said, "Watch close and count the time."

"Okay."

"Here goes...Three, two, one, zero!"

He dropped the sword directly onto the window. Just as it touched the surface, the sword vanished in a puff of light and turned into text in the menu. He then promptly touched the item name. When the sub-menu appeared, he selected materialize." With another splash of light, the sword reappeared and he picked it up again.

"...How was that?"

He looked up and met the fencer's wide-eyed gaze. Her hazel eyes blinked slowly, moved to my left hand...and she shook her head.

"It was a similar sight. But much too slow to be the same thing. It took well over a second for the sword to disappear and reappear."

"Maybe if I practice, I can do it faster..."

"There were other differences. There are big fancy effects when you put it in and take it out of the menu. Even timed to happen at the same time the upgrading materials flash in the forge, you can't hide that kind of effect. Plus, it shines twice."

"...I see..." he sighed, and tapped the window on the floor to make it disappear. He stood up and slung the sword back into position.

"I thought I was onto something. I figured all the stuff stacked on the carpet could hide his menu..."

"Wouldn't that be impossible, too? I mean, if you put something on top of a window set to the inventory tab, wouldn't it all sink into it?"

"...Urgh." She was right. I nodded and looked out the window again. Nezha was just leaving the plaza, rolled-up carpet balanced on his shoulder. His head was down, as though feeling the weight on his shoulder, and plodded heavily away. It was not the image of a man who had just scored himself a rare and valuable Stout Brand.

"If we can't expose the trick he's using, I suppose we'll just have to go reveal the truth to Shivata," she said.

"If the sword returns to him, that will prove that there was a deceptive attempt to steal it. But if that happens, all the blame will fall on Nezha's shoulders, and the other five Braves could get away scot-free. Obviously, what he's doing is wrong. But...I just get this feeling..."

He trailed off. Asuna fixed me with a direct stare. For a moment, it seemed as if the powerful light in her eyes softened just a bit.

"You can't imagine that Nezha is doing all of this entirely of his own volition...Am I right?"

My eyes widened. She'd hit the nail on the head. Asuna turned away and leaned against the wall, looked up at the dark ceiling and spoke in a slow cadence.

"Do you remember what he said yesterday, when I went to ask him to upgrade my Wind Fleuret? He asked if I wanted a new weapon or to repair my old one. It was as though he left out the option of upgrading, hoping he didn't have to do it..."

"I see...Good point. That would explain why he made such a sour face when you asked him to upgrade."

"Honestly, if Shivata was able to expose his fraud and all the Legend Braves stood up for Nezha and said they were false charges, I wouldn't mind that much. But...if they abandoned him and tried to pin all of the responsibility on his shoulders..."

In a worst-case scenario, all the rage of the player population would be focused on Nezha, and he might be executed. In fact, the probability was fairly high. After all…

"The five warriors all took the names of legendary soldiers and heroes, and they didn't include Nezha the crafter in that pattern..."

"Oh, about that." Ainz held up a finger as though just remembering something.

"What?"

"Something's been bugging me ever since you told me he was a member of the Legend Braves. His name...Nezha. So I was racking my brain about heroes of mythologies..."

"Go on…"

"Does the name Nataku mean anything to you?" Ainz asked.

He the explained the root of the name.

A moment later, several pieces of information stored in my brain as separate clumps suddenly began to rearrange themselves, linking together and shining bright.

"Oh...!"

He lifted his left hand and squeezed it, watching closely. Opened again, and closed.

In that instant, I knew that I had finally grasped the secret of Nezha's weapon-switching trick for good.

"Of course...That's what it was!"

 **The next day**

Ainz was not happy at all.

He was wearing a mismatched armor in order to hide his looks.

Worst of it all, it did not suit his aesthetics at all.

"Upgrade, please."

Ainz roughly thrust my sword and scabbard forward. Nezha the blacksmith looked up at him doubtfully.

He was suspicious because he wasn't looking at his face, but at the great helm that completely covered it. The only thing it featured were narrow slits at his eyes. Such helmets were excellent in terms of defense but terribly limited the player's vision. It was one thing for a tank in the midst of a group battle to use it, but hardly any player would bother to wear such a thing in town, not to mention it was gaudy

As he was avowed disciple of light, versatile armor, the only reason he'd ever wear this great helm was for disguise. And because he was too iconic a character, he couldn't go as he was, or Nezha would recognize him.

"I'll take a look at its properties," he said quietly, tapping the hilt. When he saw the contents of the window, his downcast eye-brows shot upward.

"Anneal plus four...four attempts left. And its upgrades are S2, H1, A1. A challenging sword, but a very good one..."

Ainz watched his lips creep into a tiny smile, and I confirmed that my initial suspicions about him were correct. This blacksmith wasn't an irredeemably evil person.

But just a second later, Nezha's smile of admiration disappeared, replaced by a grimace of pain. Through gritted teeth, he murmured, "...Which value did you want to upgrade?"

Sunday, December 11, just before eight o'clock in the evening.

A chill wind blew through the eastern plaza of Taran. There were no other players or NPCs in sight. There were only Nezha the blacksmith, just before he closed up his street side shop, and me, his mystery customer. Somewhere in the empty houses lining the plaza, Asuna was watching our encounter, but I couldn't feel her gaze for all the thick metal armor. It was the preceding Sunday that we defeated the first-floor boss and opened the teleport gate to the main city of the second floor, so today marked a full week since then. I had run into Asuna in the eastern plaza of Urbus three days ago, and it was two days before that I had discovered the truth behind Nezha's upgrade fraud. Technically, I hadn't identified the trick, only been "certain" that I had, but there was a reason that I'd waited a full two days to attempt to ascertain the truth of the matter. I needed to master the technique Nezha was using to switch out weapons. Of course, this all depended on Nezha accepting my work request. Telling myself that the hassle of all this full plate armor had succeeded in convincing him, I murmured an answer to the blacksmith.

"Speed, please. I'll pay for the materials. Enough for a ninety percent chance."

"Very well. For enough to boost the chances to ninety, that will be...two thousand seven hundred cor, including the cost of labor," he explained, his voice tense. He agreed in as flat a tone as he could muster.

That was not all. After all, we had retrieved Asuna's Wind Fleuret through the use of the MATERIALIZE ALL ITEMS command. Even Kirito's theory about the trick was wrong, he could still get the sword back within an hour by using that button.

So all I had to do was stay calm, watch everything that happened, and hit one icon at the proper moment. Nothing more.

Ainz waved my left hand to bring up the menu, flipped to the trade tab, and paid Nezha his price. Normally he might have closed it after that, but this time I left it open on the top screen. Fortunately, Nezha did not seem to find this suspicious.

"Two thousand seven hundred cor, paid in full," he muttered, and turned to the forge. Very naturally, he let the end of the sword in his left hand dangle just inches above the many products crammed on top of his carpet.

It all started here.

Ainz kept his gaze directly fixed on his left hand.

His field of view was greatly limited by the helms eye-slits, but that helped him ignore any misdirection he attempted through the flashy forge display.

Not only that but he also used his ability to see 'exactly' what he used to pull this scam.

Nezha must have tossed the upgrade materials straight from his stock into the forge, because everything flashed bright green for a second. If he'd had a view of the forge, his eyes would have been dazzled by the light for just a second.

But the next moment, Nezha's left index finger stretched and lightly tapped between two swords on the carpet. For just the briefest of instants, the Anneal Blade blinked.

That was it. The switch was complete. Such a brilliant, perfect trick. He could do this in front of a crowd of a hundred in broad daylight, and not a single one would notice.

Like Nezha when he saw the detailed properties of my sword, I let out a sigh of admiration. But I said nothing–I let the blacksmith finish his upgrading process.

Once the green light filled the forge like a liquid, Nezha lifted the sword in his left hand and pulled it from the scabbard with his right. The blade was the darkened steel color unique to the Anneal Blade. But to his eye, its shine was just a bit duller than usual, not to mention that the coding on the blade was not registered to him.

The sword Nezha was holding right now was not his +4 sword, but a spent +0, the data was there to see.

The blacksmith laid the weapon in the portable forge, suffusing the blade in its green glow. He moved it to the anvil and started striking it with his smith's hammer. Clang, clang, the same crisp sound I heard when he upgraded Asuna's fleuret.

However, the reason these strikes sounded so heartfelt was not because he was praying for the operation to be a success through them. Nezha was mourning the loss of the weapon he was about to break for the sake of his deception.

Once a piece of gear was spent–no more upgrade attempts left–it would break without fail when the process was initiated again. Argo had confirmed that for us two nights ago. That phenomenon was about to happen right before his eyes.

...Eight, nine, ten.

The last hammer strike rang loud and high.

And Ainz smirked.

The sword burst into shards atop the anvil. Nezha's back shivered and shrank. His right hand with the hammer slumped downward, and the sword-bound sheath in his left hand disappeared.

Hunched over, Nezha took a deep breath, screwed up his face, and was about to shriek an apology–until he cut him off.

"No need to apologize."

"...Huh...?"

He froze. Ainz went up his equipment mannequin from the bottom, switching out armor. Giant ski-boot greaves, plate leggings, gauntlets, plate armor, heater shield...The items that made up his disguise vanished one by one.

When the great helm came off, his bangs flopped down over forehead he pushed them back and heaved a deep breath.

Finally, he equipped the greater leather belt vest. Nezha's narrow eyes went wide.

"...Y...you're...the guy...from..."

"Sorry for dressing in disguise. But I figured you would refuse my request if you recognized me."

Ainz meant to say this in his most friendly, understanding tone of voice, but the moment he heard it, Nezha's shock morphed into fear. In that moment, he knew that he'd discovered the existence of his scam and even how it worked.

Without taking my eyes off the frozen blacksmith, Ainz pushed an icon on his main menu–the weapon skill mod activation button. With a quiet swish, another sword appeared in his right hand, heavy and wrapped in a black leather sheath. My Anneal Blade +4.

Nezha grimaced. It almost pained him to see that expression.

Almost.

"No one would suspect another player of having the Quick Change mod so early, especially not a blacksmith...And hiding the menu to use it between the wares lined up on your carpet? Brilliant. Whoever thought that up is a genius."

Nezha's shoulders slowly sank, until he finally slumped over and hung his head.

A skill mod–short for modification–was a skill power-up available to the player at certain intervals of proficiency in a particular skill.

For example, when the Search skill reached a level of fifty, the first mod became available to the player. You could then choose from a number of options, such as a bonus to search for multiple targets, a bonus to increase search range, or the optional augmentation ability of Pursuit. There were tons of useful mods, and choosing between them was as hard as it was enjoyable.

Mods could also be applied to the numerous weapon skills in the game. Quick Change fell into that category. It was a common mod available at the very first choice for most one-handed weapons, but very few players ever picked it first. There was no need for anyone to make use of it until at least the fifth floor of Aincrad.

Following that theory, when his One-Handed Sword skill reached fifty halfway through the first floor, he'd chose the "shorten sword skill cooldown" mod. When he reached one hundred, he would choose "increase critical hit chance," and only at one fifty would go for Quick Change.

Quick Change was an active mod, not a passive one. By pressing a shortcut icon on the front page of the menu, my equipped weapon would switch out instantly.

This was explained to me by Kirito nii-san as they traveled together the second floor as they exited the boss room.

The regular method of changing weapons was a five-step process: (1) opening the window, (2) tapping the right-(or left-)hand cell in the equipment mannequin, (3) selecting "change weapon" from the list of options, (4) selecting the desired weapon from the available items in storage, and (5) hitting the OK button.

When faced with a monster that had the Snatch ability, it was a long enough process that anyone would take at least one defenseless hit while trying to equip a backup weapon.

But with Quick Change, several steps were removed: (1) opening the window, and (2) hitting the shortcut icon. With enough practice, it could be done in half a second. The instant after you lost your weapon, you could have another one in hand and ready for battle.

On top of that, Quick Change had a great variety of options to specify exactly which hand received exactly which weapon when the icon was hit. You could set it to pull up a specific weapon, tell it to make you empty-handed–even allow you to automatically pull the same type of weapon as the one you were equipping, if you had a spare.

That last part was the secret at the heart of Nezha's weapon-switching trick.

He held the customer's weapon in his left hand temporarily creating the condition in which it was "equipped" there. The ownership right was still with the client, but it was the same as the hand-over feature that made it possible to toss weapons to each other in the middle of battle. He could still use that weapon to activate sword skills...even Quick Change.

Next, Nezha extended the pointer finger of the hand holding the weapon to touch the shortcut icon on his window, which was cleverly hidden beneath his tightly packed wares.

At that instant, the client's sword in his hand went into his storage, and a sword of the same type was automatically pulled out. Except this weapon was spent, guaranteed to break into pieces as soon as he attempted to upgrade it.

The only outward signs of this elaborate trick were a momentary blink of the weapon and a faint swishing sound. Given that it happened at the exact same time that he tossed the upgrading materials into the forge with a bright flash and bang, you'd have to be watching for that precise action to even notice he was doing it.

And if the customer realized he was switching weapons and tried to confront him about it, Nezha could simply employ the same trick just as quickly and get the client's original weapon back. Plus, once he shattered the spent weapon on his anvil, there was no proof of anything.

In other words, to prove Nezha's upgrade fraud was happening, Ainz either had to utilize the MATERIALIZE ALL ITEMS command to spill all of his belongings onto the ground here, or use Quick Change myself, thus pulling the sword directly out of Nezha's storage whether he liked it or not.

It was following the latter choice that had taken me two days from the time Kirito noticed the trick to actually attempting it myself. He had spent all of the previous day and today in the second-floor labyrinth fighting endless hordes of half-naked bull-men tauruses to get my One-Handed Sword skill to one hundred so that I could take the Quick Change mod earlier than planned.

As a side benefit of this activity, he got some rare loot and mapped much farther into the twenty-level labyrinth. As usual, he offered the map data to Argo at the cost of some pastries, and this generosity was apparently rankling both the Lind and Kibaou squads.

They were upset because someone else was always one or two levels ahead of them in the tower, but they hadn't realized yet that it was Kirito the evil beater's protegee. It was only a matter of time before they knew the truth. If there was one reassurance, it was that our relationship couldn't possibly get any worse.

At any rate, the two days of trouble were worth it, as he had finally uncovered and proven Nezha's upgrade fraud trick. Ainz looked down at the curled-up blacksmith and sighed in satisfaction.

His goal was complete. It was not a quest, so there was no reward or bonus experience. On the contrary, it had cost me the 2,700 cor for labor and ingredients, but all I really cared about was making sure that Nezha didn't attempt this dangerous scheme anymore.

The trick itself was brilliant, but if he kept filching valuable weapons from other players, someone was going to notice. Depending on who that person was, Nezha might find himself on the wrong end of an ugly lynch mob.

The worst possible outcome was if all the players decided he ought to be executed and it became a precedent for how to deal with such crimes.

Ainz wasn't of the mind that Nezha should be forgiven for his part in this. Rufiol and Shivata had lost their beloved swords that they had so arduously worked for...and even though it was returned in the end, Asuna cried at the loss of her Wind Fleuret. They deserved to see some kind of justice.

My solution to this was to demand that Nezha either function as a proper, honest blacksmith from now on, or to give up his smithing hammer and become a warrior. Asuna and I had talked it over and decided on this choice. Once the source of their ill-gotten wealth dried up, the Legend Braves would sink back to a level appropriate to their skill.

H stood there, lost in thought, sword dangling from my right hand, when the blacksmith spoke in a tiny voice.

"...I suppose this isn't something that a simple apology will atone for."

Nezha's body and voice were scrunched up in such a compact form that it seemed as though he were trying to disappear entirely.

"...It would be nice if I could return the swords I stole from all those people...but I can't. Nearly all of them were turned into money. The only thing I can do now is...is this!"

His voice reached a shriek by the end. He unsteadily got to his feet. The smithing hammer fell from his hand, and he took off running without a backward glance.

But he didn't get farther than a few feet. A new player descended upon his exit path, long hair gleaming in the streetlamps beneath a wool hood: Asuna the fencer.

She'd jumped out the second-story window of an empty house and blocked his path, lecturing sternly. "You won't solve anything by dying."

This time, Nezha recognized the face within the hood immediately. She was the female fencer whose Wind Fleuret he'd (temporarily) stolen three days earlier.

His already-timid face crumpled even further. Ainz, coul feel the powerful guilt, despair, and abandon raging within him.

Nezha turned his face down and away from Asuna, as though trying to escape her gaze. His voice was strained.

"...I decided right from the start...that if someone discovered my fraud, I'd die in atonement."

"Suicide is a heavier crime than fraud in Aincrad. Stealing weapons might be a betrayal of your customer, but suicide is a betrayal of every player working to defeat this game… so don't be a coward and man up!" Asuna said.

Her eloquence was every bit as sharp and piercing as her Linear. Nezha trembled and tensed–and his face shot upward as though on a spring.

"It'll happen anyway! I'm such a slow, clumsy oaf, I'll die eventually! Whether I get killed by monsters or kill myself, the only difference is whether it happens sooner or later!"

Kirito couldn't stifle a small chuckle at those last words and gave a sly look to Asuna.

She glared back at him and begun to argue like an old couple.

Kirito then said about her saying those exact words before and she stomped down into his foot.

Nezha listened to our back-and-forth in timid silence, then worked up the nerve to interject.

"Um, pardon me...Is what you said true? Did Asuna really say she would die eventually...?"

It was obviously a difficult thing for her to answer. Kirito tried to smooth things over by answering for her in as light and breezy a tone as he could.

"Oh, yeah, yeah. It was wild, she just passed out right in front of me during a four-day camp-and-hunt expedition in the labyrinth. I couldn't just leave her there, and I didn't have the strength level yet to carry a player, so I had to take a sleeping bag and–"

Shunk.

Asuna slammed her heel down hard on my toes to shut me up. She composed herself and said quietly, "To be honest that feeling hasn't disappeared. We're only on the second floor, and there are a hundred. There's a constant conflict inside me between my desire to get that far, and resignation that I'll probably fall along the way. But..."

Her hazel eyes shone bright from the shade of her hood. While the brightness of that shine was no different from what I saw that first day in the labyrinth, it seemed to me that the nature of it had changed.

"...But I've decided that I'm not fighting in order to die. Maybe I'm not quite optimistic enough to say that I'm doing it to live, to beat the game...but I've found one simple goal to strive toward. That's what I'm fighting for."

"Oh...really? What's your goal, to eat an entire cake of that Tremble Shortcake?" Kirito asked earnestly.

Asuna sighed for some reason and said, "Of course not." She turned to Nezha again.

"I'm sure you can find your own reason. It's already inside of you. Something you ought to fight for. I mean, you left the Town of Beginnings on your own two feet, didn't you?"

Nezha looked down, but his eyes were not closed. He was staring at the leather boots on his feet. I realized that they were not non-functional shoes for wearing in town, but actual leather armor.

"...It's true. There was something," he mumbled. Amid the resignation, it sounded like a tiny kernel of some kind, a burning ambition. But he shook his head several times, as if trying to extinguish the flame. "But it's gone now. It was gone before I even got here. That happened the day I bought this NerveGear. When I...when I tried the first connection test, I got an FNC..."

FNC. Full-Dive Nonconformity. The full-dive machine was an extremely delicate apparatus that sent signals back and forth to the brain with ultra-weak microwaves. It had to be finely tuned to work with each individual user.

But of course, they were producing thousands and thousands of units for mass-market use, and they couldn't spend ages of time on fine maintenance.

The machine had an automatic calibration system that went through a long and tedious connection test on first use. Once that was done and it knew the player's settings, you could dive in just by turning on the unit.

But on very rare occasions, a person received a "nonconforming" response during that initial test. Perhaps one of the five senses wasn't functioning properly, or there was a slight lag in the communication with the brain. In most cases it was merely a slight obstacle, but there were a few people who simply could not dive at all.

If he was here in Aincrad, Nezha's FNC couldn't have been that serious–but he would have been luckier if it had prevented him from playing. He wouldn't be trapped in this game of death.

We packed up all the tools and items into the carpet and moved to an empty house near the plaza to continue hearing out Nezha's story.

"In my case, I have hearing, touch, taste, and smell, but there's an issue with my sight..."

As he spoke, Nezha reached out to the cup of tea Asuna left for him on the round table. But he did not immediately grab it一he reached his fingers closer, and only when his fingertip brushed the handle did he carefully lift it up. "It's not that I'm entirely blind, but I have a binocular dysfunction. It's hard for me to grasp distance. I can't really tell how far my avatar's hand is from the object." For an instant, I thought this didn't seem so bad...but I soon reconsidered.

If SAO was an orthodox fantasy MMORPG, Nezha's disability wouldn't be such a big deal. There were classes that had autohitting long-range attacks–a mage, for example.

But SAO didn't even have archers, much less mages. Every player who fought in the game did so with a weapon in his hand. And whether sword, axe, or spear, the ability to judge distance, to tell exactly how far away the monster was, made all the difference in the world. The very cornerstone of combat here was understanding, on a physical level, how far your weapon could reach.

Nezha took a sip of tea and carefully returned the cup to the saucer. He smiled hollowly.

Ainz then saw the data stream on Nezha, there was a problem in it right, it was centered on his vision.

"Even hitting a stationary weapon on top of an anvil with my short little hammer is extremely difficult..."

"So that was why you carried out the steps of the process so painstakingly."

"Yes, that's why. Of course, I did also feel apologetic toward the swords I was breaking...but..." He looked back and forth at Kirito and Asuna, smiling weakly. "It might not be right for me to say this, but...I'm impressed that you saw through my switching trick. But it wasn't just today...you remotely retrieved Asuna's Wind Fleuret plus four three days ago. So you must have known then..."

"Oh, at that point it was just a suspicion. At the time I noticed, the hour limit to maintain ownership was nearly up, so I had to burst into Asuna's bedroom and force her to use the MATERIALIZE ALL ITEMS command, then–"

He felt a piercing stare from the right and narrowly avoided spilling the beans on what her inventory contained.

"–the Fleuret came back. That was when I knew you'd committed fraud...but it was two days ago that I figured out you were using Quick Change to pull it off. The key was in your name, Nezha...or should I say, Nataku."

Nezha (or Nataku) sucked in a sharp breath. His fists clenched and he even lifted up out of his seat for a moment. When he sat again, he looked straight down in shame.

"...I had no idea you'd figured that out, too..."

"Just call me Nezha. I picked that spelling because I wanted people to call me that," the blacksmith said. He nodded and began to explain. "Yes, you're correct..."

Nataku. Also known as Na-zha, or Prince Nata.

He was a boy god in the Ming period fantasy novel, Fengshen Yanyu. He used a variety of magical weapons called paopei and flew through the sky on two wheels. He was every bit the legendary hero as Orlando or Beowulf.

In the Western alphabet, the Chinese name was transliterated to "Nezha," but only a true fanatic of Eastern mythology would recognize that as a reference to Nataku. It would be especially difficult here in Aincrad, without any Internet search engines.

It was all due to a myth fan Ainz and his trivia knowledge.

Chapter end


	6. Chapter 6

Sword Art Overline

Author's notes: I hope you like the end for the third floor… this chapter will wrap things up and will also give a view on our mysterious whiskered feme informant as well, to all readers please review this story, I wish to know what you liked and did not liked, what can I do to improve this story, your reviews and comments are my way to grow as a writer, so if possible be descriptive on your thoughts, thank you.

Chapter 6: End of a scam and a boss fight + side story "The reason behind her whiskers"

He did not join this game intending to be a crafter. He tried to be a fighter, but due to his circumstances, he was eventually forced to become a blacksmith.

However, that meant that despite playing as a smith now, his weapon skills might already be above a certain level. Following that line of logic, Kirito eventually hit upon the possibility that he was using the battle skill mod Quick Change to switch out weapons, and the rest was history.

"The Legend Braves are a team we formed for a different Nerve-Gear action game, three months before SAO came out," Nezha explained after another sip of tea. "It was a very simple game, where you used swords and axes to fight off monsters in a straight-line map, and tried to get the high score...but even that was difficult for me. Because I had no perspective, I'd swing when the monsters were too far away, and then they'd come in close and hit me. The team could never get into the top ranks because of me. It wasn't like I knew Orlando and the others in real life, so I probably should have left the team or quit playing the game...but..."

He clenched his fists again, his voice trembling. "...No one told me to leave the team, so I used that as an excuse to stick around. It wasn't because I liked that game. It was because we decided that we'd all switch over to the very first VRMMO, Sword Art Online, when it came out in three months. I really, really wanted to try out SAO. But because of the FNC, I didn't have the guts to start it up on my own. I was...weak. I figured, if I got to be in Orlando's party in SAO, I might be able to grow stronger...even if I still couldn't fight that well..."

We could only sit in silence as we listened to his painful confession. It would be easy to say that he understood how he felt.

The moment he saw the very first trailer for SAO, he swore to myself that I would play this game. Even if he'd had a worse FNC than Nezha, he'd have gone in headfirst, as long as he was able to dive.

But he couldn't say that aloud. He abandoned one of his very first friend back in the Town of Beginnings–someone seeking help, just like Nezha.

He had taken Ainz because he had basically forced himself, not that he regretted it, he was a quick learner and was very helpful, also brought good luck with him as the monsters seemed to drop rare loot quite more often.

However he interpreted his silence, the blacksmith smirked in self-deprecation and continued his tale.

"I went by a different name in the previous game...I used a name that anyone would recognize as a hero, like Orlando or Cuchulainn. The reason I changed it to Nezha was a sign of humility, or flattery. I was trying to say, 'I won't call myself a great hero like you guys, so can I still stick around?' When they asked what it meant, I said it was based on my real name–that was a lie, of course. Every time they call me Nezuo, I want to say that it's still a hero's name. I don't know...It's silly..."

Neither Kirito, Ainz nor Asuna denied or agreed with Nezha's self-flagellation. Instead, a quiet question emerged from her hood, which was still up, even indoors.

"But then things changed when we got trapped in here, didn't they? You stopped venturing into the fields and switched to crafting. As a blacksmith, you can still support your friends without fighting. But...why would you make the jump to swindling people? Whose idea was it in the first place? Yours? Orlando's?"

She leapt to the point as quickly and accurately as if she were in battle. Nezha had no response. When he did answer, it was a surprise.

"It wasn't me, or Orlando...or any of us."

"Huh...? Then, who?"

"For the first two weeks, I tried to cut it as a fighter. There's one skill, just one, that allows you to fight remotely...I thought I might be able to hack it that way, even without being able to judge distance..."

That didn't seem like it would work to himself, but Kirito explained for Asuna's sake.

"Ahh, the Throwing Knives skill. But that's kind of..."

"Yes. I bought as many of the cheapest throwing knives as I could in the Town of Beginnings, hoping to train up my skill, but once I used up my stock, there was nothing I could do. Plus, the stones out in the field you can throw hardly do any damage. So it wasn't really much use as a main weapon skill...I gave up once my proficiency reached fifty or so. And because the other Braves stuck around to help me with that, we ended up getting off to a slow start..."

The Legend Braves' slow start was probably not due to them helping Nezha train with throwing knives, but because the other beta testers and himself had rushed off at top speed on the very first day and left everyone in the dust. Kirito had a feeling Asuna would throw him some very dirty looks if I mentioned that, however, so he kept it to himself.

"Things got very...tense when I said that I'd give up on learning how to use throwing knives. No one said it out loud, but I'm sure they were all thinking that the guild got off to a slow start because of me. Even after becoming a blacksmith, training a crafting skill takes a lot of money...It seemed like the other guys were just waiting for someone to suggest that they cut me loose and leave me back in the Town of Beginnings."

He bit his lip before continuing, "Really, I should have offered on my own...but I just couldn't say it. I was afraid of being alone...Anyway, in the corner of the bar where we were talking, someone I thought was just an NPC came up and said, 'If you're going to be a blacksmith with some weapon experience, there's a really cool way to make more money.'"

Asuna and Kirito shared a look. It hadn't occurred to us that the idea for the Quick Change weapon trick came from someone outside of the Legend Braves altogether.

"Wh-who was it ...?"

"I don't know the name. They only told me how to switch the weapons, and left immediately after that. Haven't seem 'em since. It was a very...strange person, too. Funny way of talking...funny outfit. Wore a hooded cape like a rain poncho-glossy and black..."

"Poncho...?" Asuna and I repeated together.

Hooded capes were a fairly common item in fantasy-styled RPGs like SAO–practically a staple of the genre. Asuna herself was wearing one of her own at this very moment, though it was on the shorter side.

Just minutes earlier, she had claimed she wore it for its warmth, but the real reason for those hoods was not the ability to keep out the cold and rain but to hide her face. And whoever this man in the black poncho was, he likely wore it for the same reason…

Asuna seemed to read Kirito's mind, and she pulled back her gray hood with a snort. Even in the empty room, lit only by a single lamp, her gleaming chestnut-brown hair and pale skin seemed to give off a light of their own.

Upon seeing her face clearly, Nezha's wide eyes squinted, as though staring into the sun. Given that player names were not displayed by default in SAO, the main means of recognizing a person was the face, followed by the body. Eventually, the equipment and fighting style of a player might become part of their persona, but at this point in the game, everyone was rapidly switching to newer gear and even changing their main weapon skill. Someone playing a knife-wielding thief in leather armor one day might be a heavy warrior decked out in full plate armor the next.

Essentially, with an average build and a concealed face, pretty much anyone could pass anonymously. Even voices could be altered using a few special means, such as the great helm Ainz was wearing when he approached Nezha as per their plans.

But there might be a way to learn more identifying features of this man that taught Nezha how to swindle others. He was still staring at Asuna, so Kirito brought him back to the topic at hand. "About the guy in the black poncho..."

"Ah...y-yes?"

"How did he demand the margin be paid? I mean, how did he want you to hand over his share of the money you made?" He asked. Asuna nodded in understanding. If they were making cash handoffs, we could stake out the place and catch a glimpse of the man.

But Nezha's answer blew that possibility to smithereens. "Um, actually, he didn't really say anything..."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Well...like I said, he taught me how to use Quick Change and the Vendor's Carpet to pull off the weapon-switching trick, but he didn't say a word about a share, or the payment for his idea, or anything."

Asuna and Kirito stared at each other again, dumbfounded.

The trick was brilliant and nearly flawless. He made sure Nezha knew his opinion of it. The trick was certainly possible back in the beta test, but not one of the thousand testers had come up with the idea. Whoever devised it was a creative genius. If Nezha had chosen a player handle based on his own given name, or Ainz hadn't remembered the root of the name, he would never had figured the trick out.

But because of that, it was very jarring to hear that the poncho man who devised this brilliant idea would hand it over without asking for anything in return. If he hadn't asked for Col...what did he stand to gain from giving his idea to the Legend Braves?

Clearly it wasn't out of sheer altruism. It was fraud, a means of ripping off other players.

"Wait, it can also mean… I may be mistaken but what if his motives was to cause chaos?" Ainz asked.

Asuna looked at the small child "What do you mean?"

Kirito nodded he understood were Ainz was going with this.

"There are a certain type of players on MMOs who enjoy causing suffering on others, a way of breaking players, they call them griefers, in MMOs they would basically not let you finish an important quest by preventing you access to it by killing you and camping on the route to it, they would also camp were a player would respawn and continuously kill you, in some games that was horrible because some games had a penalty system that took experience points from you and gave it to your killer, most griefers are pranksters but more than a fair few then turn to PKers for fun. There is a high probability that he is making him do the scam to prevent players from getting too strong and he could have a wider margin to grow stronger and faster as the players would find themselves without their particularly strong weapon, in turn they would become his victims sometime in the future when the margin between their levels had a large gap, in that case my Odachi would fetch a good prize on his eyes, this sword and Kirito's Anneal Blade are currently the strongest, his would be obsolete in a few more floors but mine could hold on till we reach floor 6, not only that but with it my levels are boosted +5. That guy is probably preparing something nasty and should be stopped… Nezha-san, is there something you can tell us about this poncho guy at all? Anything could help identify him besides the poncho? Speech pattern, weapons?" Ainz asked after he talked about the possible scenarios and reasons.

"Well...Technically, he did say a bit more. A scam is a scam, so Orlando and the others weren't into the idea at first. They knew it was a crime. But then he just laughed. It wasn't put on or menacing. It was just a really pleasant laugh, like out of a movie."

"Pleasant...laugh?" Ainz asked for clarification.

"Yes. It was like–like just hearing it made everything seem so unimportant anymore. The next thing I knew, Orlando, Beowulf, all of us were laughing with him. Then he said, 'We're in a game, don't you know? If we weren't supposed to do something, they'd outlaw it in the programming, right? So anything you can do...you're allowed to do. Don't you think?'"

Ainz understood now, it was even worse than he originally thought.

That player knew what he was doing was wrong and did not care, and wanted to drag other people into the same path of evil as he was.

He was not **just** a potential PKer.

Ainz knew that he had done 2 things Social Engineering and NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programing).

He had, in short changed the Legend Braves cognition into one more in line to the mysterious man.

In short he was, quite possibly, a master manipulator who enjoyed making people make people suffer to delight himself in their reactions.

He was a being who found joy in human misery.

Left unchecked this would become a serious problem, but how to go around solving it?

Ainz looked into himself.

He didn't know.

He was smart, genius even, but he was limited by his experience, or lack of thereof.

The only way to fix this scam problem was simple in words but not in execution.

Fix the NFC.

Ainz could probably do it, it would be possible to enter into his system by using the game's system as a door to it, as his NerveGear is connected and running, however the problem was something else, what if it was a hardware and not software the problem?

Being inside the game he had a LOT of control over the software of the game system, but he had to be covert about it tough as he was not skilled enough to wrest control of the system from itself, he could confuse the system and cause small errors that made certain things possible, such as increased EXP or better drop rates. However he had limited ability with the hardware parts and that was very delicate.

He was a lot less overt when going to the data locations though as he had to work fast and had no room for delicacy.

Still his skills had the flaw that due to inexperience things would not work as expected, for example his first use of a data feelers.

After analyzing the data that was being sent to that ghost subsystem he developed something similar to it, what he did not know is that due to not having a buffer, the data would be read as is by him and thus experienced the same level of emotional pain and anguish Asuna had just gone through.

He then decided to shave the emotional data aspect of it and just have a player condition and location, regardless of being in a friendlist or not. However it was not perfect, he could still feel 'ghost impressions' residual emotional data, however they had no weight on him anymore or not as much at any rate.

Kirito had other ideas.

The only realistic solution he could come up with was to have him go through the teleporter back to the Town of Beginnings and hide himself in that vast city. Or perhaps he could reverse course, going back to fighting, and find some way to contribute through battle. The problem with that was that throwing knives were a total sub-skill, better for nothing more than distracting enemies…

But then Kirito remembered a rare piece of loot he'd gotten from a difficult Taurus Ringhurler in the labyrinth just earlier that day.

It was rare but not particularly valuable, and of no use to him–something very eccentric and long-ranged.

"...Nezha."

He raised his forehead off the table an inch. I saw cheeks wet with tears.

"What's your level?"

"...I'm level 10."

"Then you've still only got three skill slots. What are you using?"

"One-Handed Weapon Crafting, Inventory Expansion...and Throwing Knives..."

"I see. If I told you that I had a weapon you could use...would you be prepared to give up on crafting? On your Blacksmith skill?"

 **Wednesday, December 14, 2022.**

The tenth day since we had beaten the boss of the first floor, and the thirty-eighth day since we'd first been trapped inside this game of death.

The collective "front-line players" including myself, Ainz and Asuna, had finished progressing through the massive labyrinth tower brimming with muscled bull-men, and finally reached the chamber of the second-floor boss.

Our raid, made up of eight different parties, was at a total of forty-seven, just under the limit allowed by the game. Despite the loss of Diavel due to emotional trauma and those too shocked by his near death to take part, the group had grown, thanks to the addition of the five warriors from the Legend Braves.

Lind the scimitar user, Diavel's right-hand man, led his blue group with three parties totaling eighteen members. Once we'd cleared the second floor and they initiated the guild quest on the next floor up, they were planning to establish the Dragon Knights guild. The knights part was clearly an homage to the spirit of their recuperating leader, but he didn't know where the "dragon" came from.

With another eighteen was the green group, gathered around their opposition to beta testers. Led by Kibaou, who swung a one-handed sword just like me, they'd already decided on their own guild name: the Aincrad Liberation Squad.

That accounted for six parties and thirty-six members. Next was Agil, the massive axe-wielder and his three friends (all muscled like he was, for some reason), Asuna the fencer, the only female in the group, Ainz the party mascot as well as being a speedy damage demon holding the ultra rare Ilfang's Odachi and then Kirito the evil beater. That made forty-three. With the five added members of the Legend Braves, that made a total of forty-eight, just one under the limit.

Kirito sat in the corner of the large safe zone just outside the boss chamber, watching the separate groups check their equipment and distribute potions. I leaned over to Asuna, who was once again wearing her trademark hood, and whispered, "Just one more and we'd have a full raid."

"True...I guess he didn't make it in time." Ainz said with a sigh.

"We got to the boss chamber a lot faster than I expected...It's a tough quest to beat in just three days," Kirito bemoaned. Asuna shot me a dirty glare.

"Well, from what I hear, it even took a certain someone three days and two nights to finish it."

Three days earlier, in the village of Taran near the labyrinth, he had given Nezha a special kind of ranged weapon and a map.

The map pointed out the location of an NPC hidden in the rocky mountains along the outer perimeter of the second floor, and the secret passageway to reach him. This NPC was none other than the bearded Martial Arts skill master who had drawn the whiskers on Kirito's cheeks that turned him into Kiriemon.

But that was a story for for a later time.

He then asked Nezha if he was prepared to give up on the weapon-crafting skill he'd spent so much time on, and take up Martial Arts instead. The weapon he'd picked up in the second-floor labyrinth required both the Throwing Knives and Martial Arts skills to use.

Asuna wanted to ask about him knowing that place but he ignored her.

"I will tell you later, in fact it was due to it that we couldn't show our faces in town for a while" Ainz supplied, making Asuna more curious.

We (Kirito and Ainz) had guided Nezha past the battles to the entrance of the secret passage and left him there. His level was high enough, and Kirito considered inviting him to join the boss battle if his Martial Arts training finished in time, but it seemed three days wasn't enough for him to break that rock. There was no need to rush. Nezha wouldn't be risking danger by attempting weapon fraud again.

"He'll be a big help in beating the third floor, I'm sure. It's a pretty good weapon if you can master it, and he'll be able to find a spot in some guild or other. One aside from the Braves, I'm guessing..." Kirito said feeling good about his good deed.

"Yes...I hope so," Asuna agreed. We looked across the safe zone at a group of five. Orlando was wearing his usual pointed bascinet helm and Anneal Blade. Beowulf was the short man with the double-handed sword next to him, and the skinny spearman was Cuchulainn. There were also two others that weren't present during the battle against the Bullbous Bow: Gilgamesh, who fought with a hammer and shield, and Enkidu, who was outfitted with leather armor and daggers.

At this morning's meeting, I detected a mixture of unease and discontent among the Legend Braves. I had to assume it was the disappearance of Nezha, their sixth member. If they had been an established guild, they could use location trackers to find him, but here on the second floor, guilds were nothing but names.

I could understand their concern, but I was under no obligation to explain the situation to them. After all, they'd forced Nezha to undertake a weeklong string of dangerous scams that easily could have led to his execution if anything was exposed to the public.

"That's all nice and good, Kirito, but we shouldn't be spending our time worrying about the state of other parties." Asuna said.

"Oh? Why?" he blinked. She sighed in exasperation.

"Lind said we'd put the raid group together just before the boss fight, but think about it. There are three parties for the blue team, three parties for the green team, one for the Braves, and probably one last one for Agil's group. That makes eight."

"Oh...g-good point."

Kirito hadn't given it any thought since she mentioned it, but eight parties was the maximum for a raid. In the first boss fight, we'd had a lower number, and Asuna, Ainz and himself got to be in our own leftover party, but that wouldn't be an option this time.

Without any magic, SAO didn't have the usual full-raid heals and buffs, so it was quite possible for extra people to take part in the battle outside of the raid. The problem was that being outside the group meant you couldn't see the HP of the other members, and they couldn't see yours. It made gauging the proper timing of potion rotation very tricky.

He had to make sure that Asuna at least made her way into Agil's party. I looked around for the axe-warrior's distinct shape.

"Hey, you three. Good to see you again," came a baritone voice from behind them. Kirito turned around to see the very man he was looking for.

His craggy face split into a grin, the light shining off his bald head. "I hear you two have paired up. I guess I should congratulate you."

"Um...we're..."

Not a pair, I tried to say, but Asuna set the record straight. "We're not a pair. It's just a temporary partnership. Nice to see you, Agil."

"You do realize that by denying it that fast makes it less credible… right?" Ainz said as Agil guffawed and laughed at this while Asuna recoiled at this.

Agil smiled again and looked at Kirito, raising an eyebrow. It was a cool gesture, but it felt as though he meant it in a consoling way. I hastily cleared my throat.

"Y-yes, well, um...that's right. So I'm guessing we're about to finalize the raid structure, since we're almost at the absolute limit for eight parties..."

Kirito was planning to ask them if they would take Asuna in their party, but again, he didn't get the chance to finish. "Yeah, that's what I came to ask you about, There are four of us, so why don't you two join our group?"

It was such a breezy, careless invitation that he couldn't help but hesitate.

"Um...well, that's really generous of you, but are you sure? I mean, given my standing..."

Asuna sighed and Agil shrugged his shoulders and threw his hands. That gesture, combined with his appearance, was clearly not Japanese, but his command of the language was perfect, so there was a strange mixture of exoticism and familiarity about the man that made him both fascinating and charismatic.

"What do they call you, a beater? It's only a tiny percent of people who actually call you that."

Even the word beater sounded fresh and new coming from his lips. Most people, including me, pronounced it with a flat intonation, like cheater, but he stressed the bee and softened the ter, which made it almost sound like a cool title to have.

"We actually have our own nickname for you."

"Really? What is it?" Asuna asked. Agil glanced at her and grinned.

"The Man in Black. Or Blackie."

She snorted and Ainz holded his sides in laughter. Kirito wasn't exactly thrilled with that epithet–he hadn't chosen the color of the coat I looted from the kobold boss–but even more startling to me was that she'd actually laughed. He peered into her hood in curiosity.

Asuna quickly composed her expression and gave him a familiar glare before continuing, "Thanks for the offer, Agil I suppose we'll take you up on it–me, Ainz and Blackie-san."

"Oh, come on, you're not going to run with that, are you?" he protested.

Asuna replied, "Blackie, as in, the prompters who wear all black during a play, right? Sounds perfect for a guy who hates being in the spotlight."

"...Oh...I see. But that's not exactly the same..."

"I mean, if you'd prefer that I just call you Kirito-kun all the time, I can do that."

"...Like I said, that's not exactly the same..." Agil, who grinned as he watched our bickering, burst out laughing at that point. "If you two are that in tune, then I'm leaving the switch timing up to you. The four of us will focus on tanking, so you guys do the damage."

He held out both hands, and Asuna shook his right, while I took the left. I bowed briefly to the other three behind him and received waves and thumbs-up in return. I hadn't talked with them much at the first-floor boss battle, but they all seemed to be as good-natured as Agil.

Ainz was still laughing and then Agil turned to him.

"You also have a nickname too, you know? Granted it was done by the females of the game but even the guys thought it suited you" he said with a snicker.

Ainz rose an eyebrow.

"the golden eyed white hare" he supplied with a smirk.

"...Like I said, that's not exactly the same..." Agil, who grinned as he watched their bickering, burst out laughing at that point. "If you two are that in tune, then I'm leaving the switch timing up to you. The four of us will focus on tanking, so you guys do the damage."

He held out both hands, and Asuna shook his right, while I took the left. I bowed briefly to the other three behind him and received waves and thumbs-up in return. I hadn't talked with them much at the first-floor boss battle, but they all seemed to be as good-natured as Agil.

Kirito accepted Agil's party request and noted the six HP bars lined up on the left side of my view, just as we hit fifteen minutes until the battle would begin. The noise of conversation died down toward the front, so I turned to see that two players were now standing before the massive doors to the boss's chamber.

One of them was Lind, decked out in silver armor, blue cape, and scimitar at his waist. The other was Kibaou, with his dark armor and moss-green jacket. "Ugh, not another double-leader situation," Ainz groaned.

"Isn't there only one leader by definition within the system?" Asuna asked.

"That's a good point..." Kirito said.

As if sensing our confusion, Lind raised a hand and spoke loudly to the group. Unlike the area outside the first-floor boss chamber, this was a safe zone, so there was no fear of tauruses coming to investigate the noise.

"Well, it's time. Let's start forming the raid! First, an introduction: I'm Lind, chosen to be your leader today. Greetings, everyone!"

Before I could even wonder how Kibaou would willingly give up control, the cactus-headed man interjected, "Only chosen 'cuz ya won a coin flip."

Half the gathering laughed at this, while the other half looked upset. Lind shot Kibaou a dirty glare, but he did not respond to the bait.

"...The fact that we're already here, just ten days after opening this floor, is a testament to your skill and dedication! If you lend me your help, there's no way we can fail to beat this boss! Let's finish the day on the third floor!"

He raised a fist, and all of those who didn't laugh at Kibaou's jibe roared in approval.

"Now let's form the raid! Of the eight parties, the Dragon Knights will form teams A, B, and C. Kibaou's Liberation Squad will make up teams D, E, and F, and team G will be Orlando's Braves. And team H..."

He looked to us in the very back. For an instant, his breezy smile seemed to vanish when his eyes met Kirito's, but he looked past him just as quickly.

"...will be the rest of you. Teams A through F will concentrate on the boss, while G and H handle the mobs..."

This news did not come as a surprise to him. What was surprising, however, was the voice that spoke up in response.

"Hang on just a moment."

It wasn't Agil and certainly wasn't Asuna. It was the leader of the group of five on the far wall: Orlando.

When he spoke, the eyes staring out from beneath his bascinet visor were just as piercing as when they'd nearly seen through my hiding ability outside the bar.

"We're here to fight the boss. If you want us to rotate around, I might understand, but we're not going to just hang back and deal with mobs."

His brassy voice echoed off the walls and died out, the ensuing lull filled by the fevered murmuring of the blue and green players. I could make out mutters of "Who do they think they are?" and "Bloody newcomers."

Then it all clicked into place for him.

With the disappearance of Nezha, Orlando and his team had just lost a huge source of income. This was their chance to leap out to the head of the clearers. The money earned by the raid party was equally shared between all members, but the experience points and skill boosts were not.

The enormous store of experience points the boss was worth would be distributed by the amount of damage done (or blocked), and the skill proficiency gained by attacking a powerful enemy was far beyond that of a normal foe. None of that went to them if they didn't attack the boss directly.

The five Braves had upgraded their equipment to about the maximum it could be at this point, but their player levels were below the average of the raid. They probably saw this boss battle as the best chance to close that gap.

And yet, disagreeing with the raid leader's orders wasn't going to get them anywhere. The scene could have easily turned into an ugly shouting match, but the blue and green players didn't let it get any worse than whispers.

Kirito suspected that was due to the powerful aura the Legend Braves were exuding. Level, stats, and skill proficiency were all hidden variables not exposed to the public–but equipment power was different. Weapons and armor augmented close to the limit began to glow with a depth that reinforced their value.

Those hidden values, however, were plain for Ainz to see, with a quick cursory glance he saw their levels and stats, they were… adequate, but not boss fighting material, they would get in the way or worst get someone killed.

Kirito and Ainz had to admit tough, with their super upgraded weapons and armors they did have a very 'powerful' air to them.

Ainz was reminded of animals who would make themselves look larger and more menacing by inflating themselves.

Ainz had to put his fist on his mouth to stop the laughter threatening to escape.

Of course, equipment strength was not all there was in the game. More important than anything in SAO was personal experience and the ability to react and adjust. But in the battle ahead against Baran the General Taurus, every value was important–especially armor strength.

This was because General Baran used an elite version of the taurus races special attack…

"All right. In that case, team G can join the fight against the boss," Lind said stiffly. Kirito looked up and found himself staring right into the blue-haired man's eyes again.

While his hairstyle might have been the same as the one worn by breezy affable Diavel, Lind seemed to have a significantly more obstinate side to him. He held my gaze this time and said, "According to our prior intelligence, the boss only has one accompanying mob that does not re-pop. I trust team H will be able to handle that alone?"

Asuna and I sucked in a sharp breath, Ainz was indifferent about it our hackles raised, but team leader Agil waved a hand to calm us. His voice and manner stayed perfectly calm.

"It might be one monster, but the intel says that it's not your average mob, but more of a mid-level boss on its own. Plus, maybe it's only the one, but we don't know that for sure. That's a lot to ask of a single party." he said.

The prior intelligence they were referring to was, of course, the second-floor boss edition of Argo's strategy guide, which appeared just yesterday in Taran. It held the attack patterns and weak points of the boss and its attendant mob, but as the disclaimer on the cover said, all information was based on the beta test.

The first-floor boss used katana skills that hadn't been there in the beta, and it led to the near death of Diavel the knight. We had to assume that there were alterations since the beta here, as well. In a worst-case scenario, there might be two or more of "Nato the Colonel Taurus" accompanying Baran instead of just one.

But Lind actually agreed with Agil's rebuttal.

"Of course, I have no intention of repeating the mistakes of the first floor. If we spot any difference in the patterns listed in our prior intelligence, we will immediately retreat and rethink our plan. If the attendant mob is too much for one party to handle, we'll send another team to help. Will that do?"

It was about as much as we could hope for at this stage. Agil murmured in the affirmative, and Asuna and Kirito let out the breaths we'd been holding in.

Next came a review of the boss's attack patterns and a final check of each team's individual strategy, leaving just two minutes until the scheduled fight time of two o'clock. That was only a general guideline, so nothing was stopping us from beginning the fight slightly before or after the hour.

Lind raised his hand and said, "All right, it's a bit early, but..."

Suddenly, he was cut off by a familiar phrase from Kibaou, who had, somewhat surprisingly, kept quiet this entire time.

"Now, hang on just a sec!"

"...What is it, Kibaou?"

"You been basin' everything on this strategy guide so far, Lind. Now, all this info is comin' from the info dealer who ain't even been in the boss room, right? Is that really good enough for us?"

Lind's mouth twisted in displeasure. "I won't claim that it's perfect, but it's better than nothing, isn't it? What's your alternative? Are you going to walk in there to check out the boss for yourself?"

Now it was the green-clad Liberation Squad that bristled in anger, but Kibaou simply smiled confidently.

"What I'm sayin' is, we know we got at least one person here who's seen this boss for himself. So why don't we get his take on it?"

What?

Kirit took a step back and to the left, to hide behind Asuna. But Kibaou lifted his right hand and pointed straight at me. Dozens of eyes turned in my direction, and Asuna callously stepped aside to avoid them.

"Whaddaya say, Black Beater? Why don'cha offer us some advice on this boss battle?" he bellowed. I couldn't read his expression to see what he was really thinking.

"...What does he think he's doing?" Ainz muttered quietly, but Asuna could only shrug.

He'd heard that Kibaou's Aincrad Liberation Squad rallied around a resistance to the former beta testers. As a means to compete with the testers who rushed out to monopolize the game's best resources, they aggressively recruited new members from the thousands left down in the Town of Beginnings, distributed money and items fairly, planned to conquer the game through sheer numbers. At least, according to Kibaou's theory.

So what did he stand to gain by giving a known ex-tester a platform? You'd think it was clearly some kind of trap...but there was something in the cactus-haired swordsman's eyes that could be taken as honest fervor.

If that look's an act, yer one helluva actor, Kirito muttered to himself. One, two, three steps forward, and he had a proper view of every face in the raid.

"Let me just make this dear. I only know the boss from the beta test as well. So it's totally possible that something...or everything about this boss has been changed."

As he spoke, the muttering players eventually fell silent. Even Lind, who he'd figured would interrupt, did not speak.

"But I can say that the regular tauruses in the labyrinth use the exact same attacks that they did in the beta. So I think it's a certainty that the boss will use sword skills that are an extension of that pattern. As you just discussed, you want to evade when he goes into his motion, but what's most important is how to react when you take the first hit. Avoid getting hit with double debuffs at all costs. In the beta, every player that got stunned and then paralyzed..."

Pretty much died, he stopped himself from saying.

"At any rate, if you stay calm and watch his hammer, you can avoid the second hit. As long as we all take that into account, this lineup can beat the boss without any casualties."

Nothing he said couldn't be found in Argo's guide, but virtually all the players present nodded in understanding when I was done.

As usual, Kibaou's expression was a cipher to me, but Lind had a look of surprise. He clapped his hands briskly. "Alright, everyone: Avoid the second hit! Now let's get started!"

He turned around and faced the giant set of doors and loudly drew his scimitar, holding it aloft.

"We're going to crush the second-floor boss!"

The dim corridor shook with the roar of the gathering.

Blue hair waving, his left hand pushing the door open, Lind looked very much like Diavel had in that same exact moment back on the first floor.

"Don't worry… Lind seems like **those** kind of persons" Ainz said as he noticed Kirito's look.

" **Those kind of person**?" Asuna asked "What do you mean by that?"

"he is too stupid to be killed" Ainz said with a smirk.

Changing his Stats values maximizing Agility and Strength, Ainz then took his own Anneal Blade and then caged the parameters to it, maximizing Speed and Weight with the leftover numbers to Sharpness and Durability, as he had upgraded his sword before coming here and for good measure put on the **armor**.

"Seriously... making the poor kid wear that.. what is he thinking?"

"I bet all the female characters would love to see that brat"

A lot of the men threw dirty glares at Kirito who moaned "it is his idea not mine" Kirito tried to explain but it fell to deaf ears.

Everyone expected Ainz to use the blade he had as loot from Illfang, but while it had devastating power, it was not 'complete'

The Odachi is a katana weapon, and the skill to use the weapon to its full ability was not unlocked until a few more floors and thus the damage would not be as much as it would be otherwise.

He would switch with it should he need an AoA if too many mobs gathered, but according to intel there was only 2 enemies, the boss and the attendant, thus no need for AoA.

The battle started.

Being the fastest by a wide margin Ainz charged first.

A linear… a low attack power but with a emphasis on speed, he attacked right on it's chest making it step back, he twisted himself to evade a retaliatory attack.

"Agil! Switch!" he called out.

Agil charged with his axe stopping an attack to Ainz as he rolled underneath him.

"Asuna, switch!" Agil called out.

Asuna charged with a 3 combo of linear at the attendant.

The monster started to thrash around.

Kirito jumped in and deflected the attack,his HP took a shave.

Ainz jumped back more he went through his inventory and equipped 2 +6 ebony daggers. All of them balanced for Speed and Weight.

He was going to go for DPS with Asuna.

Players may dual wield two swords, however you could only use sword skills with one sword and not the other.

In Sword Art Online, attacking without using Sword Skills is inefficient, as a regular attack with a sword is much weaker than an attack using a Sword Skill.

Maybe there would be a way to get around that, a way to truly 'dual wield'.

As far as Ainz knew no such skill existed.

Still he could work with what he had, the ones who survive are not the strong or the smartest.

It was those who could adapt.

And thus using the rules within the system he exploited any and all loopholes, memorizing the cooldown of each sword skill, making a chain of combos, he was going to overwhelm the AI's learning algorithm of the monsters with sheer speed and power, so that it couldn't learn from him as much, due to his ever changing play style and sheer unpredictability.

Ainz did a 8 hit combo of Linears, Sonic leap and rapid bite.

"Kirito, switch!" Ainz called out.

Kirito jumped in and did a vertical slant on it.

Ainz took the opportunity that Kirito now had Agro on him and climbed the attendant.

"What is the kid doing?" Agil asked in shock.

Ainz was now on the shoulders of the attendant.

"Time for some shish kebabs!" Ainz said as he repeatedly shanked the attendant.

Due to it regular attacks and not sword skills his attacks did little damage, but because he couldn't be actively attacked by the mob he continued to attack it and shave HP away from it, while the others applied more pressure on it.

Monster attacks against players fell under two general categories. One was direct attacks that dealt HP damage.

The other was indirect attacks that did not cause direct damage but occasionally posed a significant threat, in other words, debuffs.

Akihiko Kayaba, the designer of this game of death, at least had a minimum of sympathy for new players, for he did not grant any of the kobolds in the first-floor labyrinth debuff attacks. The delay effect that led to Diavel's near death was a debuff, in a way, but it was an effect that occurred at a high likelihood when suffering multiple consecutive attacks, and wasn't a special skill that the kobold lord could use at will.

Which meant that the tauruses that dwelt in the second-floor labyrinth where the player's first real experience with serious, regular debuffs.

"Here it comes!" Kirito cried, recognizing that the double-handed hammer was being lifted straight aloft.

The rest of the party called out their acknowledgment and jumped backward. The hammer stopped high overhead for an instant, its wide surface glowing with brilliant yellow sparks.

"Vrrroooooo!"

With a roar so fierce, it might as well have been a long-range attack of its own, the beast brought down the hammer. The mass of metal, rippling with lightning, slammed against the dark stone floor. It was the taurus face's special debuffing skill, Numbing Impact.

No one was standing within the direct damage range of the blow, of course, but there were also narrow sparking tendrils that extended out from the impact point.

One of them shot toward Kirito along the floor, fading out, until it just barely licked the end of his boot.

Instantly, I felt an unpleasant prickle at my toes. Fortunately, I was just outside of the debuff range, so there was no stun icon showing beneath my HP bar. Everyone else kept farther away from the shockwave, so none of them were affected.

"Full-power attack!" Ainz shouted, and the six of us fanned out in a semicircle around the taurus and closed. Each person unleashed the strongest sword skill in their weapons repertoire. Agil's two-handed axe, his crewmates' similar weapons, Asuna's Wind Fleuret, and my Anneal Blade blasted the beast with an array of colored lights. The bull-man's three-part HP gauge finally emptied its first bar and opened the second.

"I think we can do this!" Asuna shouted from her familiar position to my left.

"Yeah, just don't get overconfident! Once we get to the third bar, he'll start using consecutive numbing attacks! Plus," Kirito raised his voice to ensure that Agil's group heard me, "based on the first-floor battle, we should assume there might be a new attack when we hit that last bar! If that happens, we all pull back!"

"Got it!"

The taurus recovered from its delay at the same time our skill cooldown ended. Agil's tanks recognized that the next attack would be a sideways blow and took defensive stances along its trajectory. Asuna and I hung back, waiting for the right moment to counter.

Ainz continued to provide much needed help as he continued to shave away at its HP while being safe from attacks, at least for now.

Just over five minutes had passed in the battle against the boss.

So far, our team was performing well. None of us had suffered the Numbing Impact effects yet, and none had taken heavy damage.

The four tanks were losing HP with each attack they blocked, of course, but the pace of damage was slow enough that we were making do with just a one-man pot rotation so far.

And yet, the fact that our battle was going well meant hardly anything.

The blue-skinned, bull-headed beast that team H faced right now was only Nato the Colonel Taurus, an extra thrown into the boss monster fight...a distraction at worst.

"Evade! Evaaaade!" came a somewhat panicked scream from the other side of the vast boss chamber. When I had the chance, I glanced over the heads of the dozens of players to see a frightfully large shadow.

A bristly, crimson red pelt enveloped rippling muscles. His waist was covered with a luxurious golden cloth, but in keeping with taurus tradition, his upper half was bare. The chain dangling over his shoulders was also made of gold. To top it off, the golden battle hammer in his hands shone with a dazzling brilliance.

Coloring aside, Colonel Nato might as well have been a body double of Baran, but there was one other major difference: size. General Baran, the boss of the second floor, was at least twice the size of Nato.

Because of the physical height limit of the ceilings in the labyrinths of Aincrad, Baran was not as tall as the mammoth Bullbous Bow that prowled the landscape, but there was no escaping the primal fear inspired by a sixteen-foot beast man. Even the kobold lord from the first floor felt huge, and he was only seven feet tall and change.

Naturally, General Baran's golden hammer was massive as well, its powerful head the size of a barrel. When he lifted it, the surface shot golden sparks. The tanks and attackers pulled back as one, in accordance with Lind's order.

"Vrruuuuvraaaaa!"

Baran's roar was appropriately twice as fierce as Nato's, and he smashed the floor. Even at our distance, we could feel the shockwave, which was followed by a burst of sparks.

Again, the effective range was twice that of his subordinate. It was Baran's unique skill, Numbing Detonation.

The queuing-up motion was very easy to identify, but the blast Radius was so wide that two members failed to get to a safe distance, and their feet were swallowed by the golden sparks. The lightning wrapped around their limbs and demobilized them–the stun effect, one of the most common debuffs of the many in the game, though not one to be overlooked. The stun effect caused by the taurus's numbing attacks lasted three seconds, and unlike many debuffs, it wore off automatically.

But while three seconds might not feel long against garden-variety mobs, it was a lifetime against a deadly floor boss. Even at this distance, I was keenly aware of the fear and panic those stunned warriors were feeling.

One second, two seconds...and just before the third, one of the stunned fighters dropped his short spear to clatter onto the ground. It was a fumble, a secondary debuff that sometimes occurred in the midst of a stun. In the next instant, the soldier was free, and the blue-shirted member of Lind's group bent over to pick up his weapon.

"No–"

Get back, here comes the next one! Kirito wanted to yell, but I held it in. He wouldn't hear me at this distance, and my companions in team H would confuse it for an order directed at them. After a brief but powerful Slant to Colonel Nato's ribs, I looked to see General Baran raising his hammer again.

Thwam! A second Numbing Detonation.

The hammer struck the same spot as the last one, and more yellow lightning shot forth. Again, they swallowed the spearman attempting to pick up his weapon.

But while he'd been standing upright last time, he fell down to the floor in this instance.

The visual effect that surrounded his avatar was not yellow, but pale green. This was not a stun but a more powerful and dangerous debuff, paralysis.

It was the true terror of the tauruses' numbing skills–the second hit in succession would turn the stun to a paralyzing effect.

Unlike a stun, paralysis did not disappear after a few seconds. It wasn't indefinite either, but even the weakest effect would last ten minutes...a full 600 seconds. Obviously, no one could survive a battle while prone for that length of time, so healing items were necessary.

The main methods of recovery were healing potions or purification crystals. The latter were impossible to find until later in the game, so potions were the only choice.

"Things aren't going well in the main fight," Agil rumbled as he returned from his potion rotation.

Kirito quickly responded, "Yes, but the more they fight, the more they'll get accustomed to the rhythm. I haven't seen any differences from the beta yet, so I think–" We'll be all right, he was about to finish, but Asuna cut him off with a sobering note.

"But Kirito, if any more of them get paralyzed...it'll make a temporary retreat much harder."

"...!"

He tensed and clenched the handle of his Anneal Blade. The weapon wouldn't fall unless he intentionally dropped it (or an external factor caused me to fumble it), but his subconscious was working in overdrive after witnessing the prior scene with the spearman.

The boss chambers in Aincrad, at least as far as he'd seen, did not lock the players inside once the battle had begun. If things got hairy, it was always possible to beat a hasty retreat. That didn't mean it was a simple matter, of course; there was a considerable distance between the battle zone and the door, so if everyone took off running at once, the boss would catch up to us in no time and cause delays, stunning, and ultimately, death.

So in a way, escaping from the boss chamber required a trickier coordinated effort than actually fighting the adversary. Could we even pull it off, burdened by a large number of paralyzed fighters?

For one thing, lifting an immobile player in your arms to carry them out required a significant strength value. I couldn't lift Asuna up with my skinny arms when she had passed out in the first-floor labyrinth, so we (Ainz and himself) had to grab a part of her body and carry her–an emergency measure still fresh in his memory.

"We might need to refocus and prioritize dealing with the numbing," he said, stepping out of the way of a three-part hammer combo from Nato. Asuna nimbly matched my steps beside me.

"I agree. But if we start calling out orders for the main force, it's only going to confuse the chain of command. We need to get our ideas to Lind's ears."

Her hazel eyes darted over the HP of team H, and then Colonel Nato.

"We can handle him with just five. Go and talk to Lind, Kirito."

"Um...a-are you sure?"

"Yeah, no problem!" boomed Agil, who must have overheard. "The four of us can handle guarding for now! You've easily got two or three minutes to go talk with him!"

He turned back to look at the chocolate-skinned warrior and his friends, who seemed resolute, and made up his mind. The key to defeating Baran was to keep his paralysis out of the equation. The battle was holding up for now thanks to our large number and high average level, but if this was the same party that tackled him in the beta, we'd be wiped out by now.

"All right, just for a bit! I'll be right back!"

Before he left, he unleashed a Vertical Arc into Nato's back as he stood frozen after missing with a big attack, and sped off for my target.

"Damn it! Watch it! I am still up here!" Ainz yelled as he had stabbed his daggers deep into the attendant's flesh and grabbing his daggers as a way to keep himself up there as the monster stumbled.

His pasty, skinny real body back home would be lucky to break fourteen seconds in the hundred-meter dash, but the agility-heavy Kirito crossed the space in ten flat. His boot heels screeched to a halt as he lined up next to a blue cape at the rear.

For a moment, it occurred to me that this was the first time I'd ever been face-to-face with Lind, leader of this raid and confidant of Diavel the knight.

Ten days earlier, just after we defeated the previous boss, he'd screamed, Why did you abandon the other players to die? You knew the moves the boss was using! If you'd told us that information to start with, Diavel wouldn't been emotionally broken!

He hadn't apologized. He'd met him with a cold smile.

I'm a beater. Don't you ever insult my skill by calling me a former tester.

And having said his piece, he had put on the Coat of Midnight he was still wearing, and left the first-floor boss chamber. He hadn't interacted with Lind since that very moment.

So it shouldn't have been a surprise that when he sidled up next to him, Lind's first reaction was a grimace of disgust. His narrow eyes went wide, his blade-sharp chin trembled, and his thin lips went even thinner.

But that manifestation of his true emotions soon sank back beneath his skin. It bothered me that both he and Kibaou were attempting to mask their true feelings about me–though it also wasn't his business to care about it–but now was not the time to worry about feelings.

"I ordered you to handle the sub-boss. Why are you–" he growled before Kirito interrupted with the line he'd prepared,

"Let's regroup. If any more members get paralyzed, it's going to make escape nearly impossible."

The raid leader looked back at the seven or eight players waiting to recover, then at the state of the fight itself.

Following his lead, he checked the HP bar of General Baran. Out of his five bars, they'd lowered the third to the halfway point–we were already half-done with the boss.

"We're halfway there. Why would we need to retreat now?"

He had to admit, there was a part of me that thought it would be a waste to give up now. In the ten minutes since we had started the battle, several people had been paralyzed, but no one's HP had fallen into the red zone, and the pace of our damage against the boss was better than expected. There was more than a small chance that we could continue to press on, and make it through...But as if seeing through my hesitation, a voice rang out from behind us.

"How's about we pull back if one more person gets paralyzed?" I turned around to see Kibaou's familiar, light-brown spikes of hair. No doubt he was also filled with a powerful disgust at me for being a tried-and-true beta tester, but the look on his face was honest and forthright.

"Everyone's got the hang of the numbing range and timing. They're focused, an' morale is high. We been poundin' paralysis and healing potions, so if we stop now, we might not have the supplies ta give it another shot until tomorrow."

"..."

Again, he let his mind race for half a second before reaching a conclusion.

The most important thing here was not the number of tries or the sum of spent resources but human life. We had to succeed without losing anyone. That was the first rule of any boss battle in Aincrad.

But Lind and Kibaou already knew that. And if the leader and sub-leader of the raid decided that we could still win, the only thing that a single fighter from an outlying party would do by disagreeing was sabotage the chain of command–obviously, a bad decision.

And on top of that, my own instincts were telling me that if we could just maintain our current progress, we could defeat Baran without any casualties.

"All right, one more. Just be careful when we get down to the last HP gauge," I said. Kibaou growled in acknowledgment and turned back to his station. Lind nodded silently and resumed his command.

"Team E, prepare to retreat! Team G, prepare to advance! Switch at the next stagger!" he ordered as Kirito turned back and crossed the coliseum to rejoin team H.

Asuna wasted no time in asking, "What happened?!"

"We'll pull back if one more person gets paralyzed! But at our current pace, we can probably make!"

Ainz had jumped out and left his two dagger on the mid boss, apparently they still did some DOT (Damage Over Time) as long as they were stuck, this gave him new ideas to try sometime later.

"I see..." She briefly looked upset and glanced over at the main battle, but grudgingly agreed with the decision.

"All right. In that case, let's finish off this blue guy quick, so we can join the others."

"Yeah!"

Having reached a rapid consensus, we turned back to see that Colonel Nato had just unleashed a massive attack that was expertly blocked by Agil's group. There was just a bit over one full HP bar left. With perfect precision, we hit the beast with sword skills to either flank.

That attack brought Nato to his final HP bar, and the blue skinned minotaur bellowed up at the ceiling. He stamped the ground with hooves as big as buckets, then hunched over to expose his horns and tensed like a coiled spring. It was a new pattern to this fight, but not one he'd never seen before.

"He's gonna charge! Watch the tail, not the head! He'll go along that diagonal!" Ainz warned as he read the new data prompt that was feed into the enemy mob.

Nato turned to his left and charged right for Agil. But the axe-warrior, poised and prepared, easily dodged out of the way and unloaded his double-handed combo, Whirlwind. He stepped back, and Asuna and Kirito switched in to continue the onslaught. The damage was so great that spinning yellow rings appeared over the colonel's head, and he began to wobble. They'd inflicted their own stun status on him.

"Now's our chance! Everyone use two full-power attacks!"

"Raaah!"

All seven of us surrounded the taurus and pummeled him with flashes of light in red, blue, and green. His HP bar lost refreshingly large chunks in quick succession and soon plunged into the yellow zone that signified less than half remained.

Our full attack a success, we held distance once more, and the taurus's skin turned purple as he raged even louder. This berserk state before he died was, again, the same as in the beta. His attack speed was half again as fast as before, but with a calm head, this was not an issue.

On the other side of the chamber, the players let out a roar. I nearly lost my balance for a moment before I realized it was a cry of high spirits. General Baran's final HP bar had gone yellow as well. Meanwhile, the number of paralyzed along the wall had not risen but had shrunk to five.

"It's a good thing there weren't any surprises since the beta," Asuna opined to me while we waited for our skills to cool down behind Agil's protective wall. I looked back to the battle at hand and nodded.

"Yeah. But if we'd been paying attention against the kobold lord, we'd have noticed that the weapon on his back was a katana, not a talwar. And General Baran hasn't changed an inch from the beta. So..."

Kirito suddenly realized that a shadow had passed across Asuna's face. "What's wrong?"

"...Um...nothing. I'm just overthinking things...I was just noticing that it's weird the first-floor boss was a lord, but the second one is only a..."

Ga-gong!

A sudden crash interrupted our conversation. We all turned as one to the source of the sound–the center of the coliseum chamber.

Ainz scanned the area, this fight was a trap! The other mob was not a boss! His stats, while similar to Illfang's (maybe slighter higher) did not mean it was a boss.

The final nail was their names.

It was moving. The three circles of paving stones were sliding, rotating counterclockwise and slowly picking up speed. The stones were rising from the floor before Ainz's eyes, elevating into a three-step stage at the center of the room.

Suddenly, the view of the far wall over the center platform began to waver.

"Uh-oh..." KiritoI grunted. That was the visual effect that signaled a very large object being generated into the map. As he feared, the wavering in the air rapidly spread and began to generate a thick, menacing shadow at the center.

The shadow soon coalesced into a humanoid form and grew legs thick as tree trunks that thudded heavily onto the stage.

Sturdy, dark chainmail covered the figure's waist, but its torso was, as usual, bare. This one had a long, twisted beard that hung down to its stomach. The head was that of a bull, but it had six horns instead of two, and atop the center of its head was a round accessory of silvery platinum–a crown.

The mammoth figure, so black it might as well have been painted with ink, reared back, and the third and largest of the tauruses let out a roar. Flashes of lightning spread around the minotaur, filling the chamber with blinding light.

Finally, a six-part HP bar appeared so high in my field of view that it seemed to be stuck to the ceiling. He gazed dully at the letters that appeared.

ASTERIOS THE TAURUS KING.

"Son of a-!" Ainz tried to curse.

It was clear what had just happened. General Baran, whom every player present, including Ainz, had assumed was the second-floor boss, was just as much an opening act as Colonel Nato.

Baran's final HP bar turning yellow must have been the trigger to generate the true boss pitch–black King Asterios. But speculation about the origin of the creature was pointless. What mattered was what we did next.

There was no need to think. They had to retreat out of the chamber. They didn't even know how this monster would attack...and the risks of fighting this taurus king were clearly far greater than that of the general.

The problem was that Asterios had spawned in the center of the chamber, and the raid party was fighting in the back of the room. The group would need to charge through his attack range in order to reach the exit. Team H, fighting Colonel Nato, was the closest to the exit, and we could probably make it out safely now, if we broke for it...but if we did that, and teams A through G were wiped out by the king, our chances of beating this game of death disappeared along with them.

How to evacuate a forty-seven-man raid party? The first step was eliminating our present foes as quickly as possible.

Time seemed to spring back into motion once our path became clear, and he promptly raised my sword high and shouted, "All units, all-out attack!".

There was a piercing clang that seemed to strike directly into the center of my brain, and my sword shot backward. Meanwhile, the hammer was pushed back overhead. Without missing their chance, his six companions proceeded to launch another wave of attacks. Only a few pixels of HP remained.

Under normal circumstances, chaining sword skills together was impossible. But Kirito knew from our hunting of the Windwasps the other day that you could get past that limitation if you used weapons of different categories. He curled up in mid air and kicked out with his left foot. The resulting Crescent Moon, a vertical kick attack as he spun backward, caught Nato right on the forehead.

The taurus hurtled backward and let out a high-pitched screech before freezing stiff, then exploding into a massive cloud of polygons. It must have been treated as a proper sub-boss, not just a typical mob, because he promptly saw a Last Attack bonus read-out. He didn't have time for that, however; he spun around as he hit the ground.

The first thing he saw across the room was a towering ebony back. King Asterios was on the move. Fortunately, he hadn't targeted any of the five paralyzed along the east wall, but his destination was the thirty-six remaining fighters of the main party–who were still busy with General Baran.

His worst fear was that the main force would fall into total panicked chaos and retreat if faced by a boss on either side. Fortunately, that was not happening. But very soon, his lumbering steps would take him within attack range of the raid. We had to defeat the general before then.

"Let's go, nii-san!" said Ainz, his voice tense but resolute.

Asuna was of the same mindset.

But he wasn't sure if I should agree. It wasn't that he was afraid for my own life–for some reason that he couldn't explain, he was gripped with a sudden feeling that once he set foot into the battle ahead, he could not guarantee that those two would survive, he knew damn well just how good Asuna and even Ainz were. He wasn't even sure if he could beat her in a one-on-one duel, and Ainz, he knew he coukd be very scary, his agile movements and his near procog abiluty to read attacks made him formidable, but there was no denying his urge to force them to escape right there and then.

After he had abandoned my first and only friend at the start of this game, and was nearly killed by a fellow beta tester just hours later, he had sworn to live as a solo player, relying on no one but myself.

Ainz was just an anomaly that forced into him, but he was quiet and understanding so it felt as he wasn't there, he also left many times for that quest of his.

The week that we had just spent as a partnership-of-sorts with Asuna was only a means to uncovering and stopping Nezha's fraud. Nothing more.

So why was he being ruled by this emotion...this sentimentality?

Why was he so desperate to keep Asuna from dying? "Asuna, you need..."

To run, he wanted to say–but saw the powerful light in her hazel eyes. They told me that she knew full well what I was thinking. Her eyes were full of an emotion that was neither anger nor sadness but something even purer. Again, she said, "Let's go." There was enough strength in that voice that it bottled up the fear that had overtaken him.

Ainz smirked "you are not gonna get rid of us that easy nii-san, so just suck it up and deal with it"

"...All right," he said, and looked back at Agil's party. The axe-warrior nodded at him, not frightened in the least.

"We'll swing around the right flank and defeat Baran first. If the king attacks before then, we've got to pull him away as best we can to help buy them time."

"Got it!" the others shouted. Bolstered by their courage, Kiritp leapt forward. By the time he reached full speed, his hesitation was gone.

The monster's reaction zone, also called its "aggro range" was invisible to the naked eye. But the more experience one built, the more it felt like a tangible thing. He followed his instinct and circled around the right side of the plodding King Asterios toward the main party.

Baran's HP bar was already down into the red zone. But as with Nato when he was nearly dead, Baran had gone into a berserk state and was using his Numbing Detonation at every possible chance, slowing the group's attack progress.

We had thirty seconds until the king started to attack, he'd gauged.

He darted right between the wide-eyed Lind and Kibaou, directly in front General Baran, and leapt high into the air, aiming for his blazing orange horns. But the general was nearly twice the size of the colonel. Even my highest jump combined with my longest reach couldn't make it all the way.

"Rrraah!"

At the apex of his jump, he took pains to hold his stance and just barely managed to throw off a sword skill. His Anneal Blade glowed green, and his body sped back into motion as though pushed by invisible hands: Sonic Leap, a one-handed sword charge skill.

This desperate attack hit him right in the weak point, and the general's body arched backward. This staggering was our final chance.

Asuna and the other five didn't need my order to know what to do. They raced in to land blows, then pulled back. The rest of the raid followed their lead, and General Baran was enveloped in flashing effects of every color.

But once again, it wasn't quite enough. There was still a pixel or two left on his HP bar.

Ainz took a stage stance, his sword glowed white.

"Stinger!" He yelled as he did an attack similar to sonic leap, but much faster and stronger.

The attack made the monster stagger back.

Then he jumped.

He curled up in mid air and kicked out with his left foot. The resulting Crescent Moon, a vertical kick attack as he spun backward, just as Kirito done before.

Still had a shave of a HP left.

His sword glowed red.

His face held a manic grin.

"this is the end! HELM BREAKER!"

His attack traced the monster's body from it's head to his groin and then exploded in pixels.

He had gotten the LA from this one as well.

"Race ya to the true boss LA?" Ainz asked Kirito with a picaresque grin.

Kirito blinked and then smiled, Ainz words had calmed him down somewhat.

"You are being too cocky kid" Kirito said as they stared at the true boss.

The onyx taurus king, who should have still been ten seconds away, was leaning backward, his massive chest bulging like a barrel. That looked like…

A breath attack. Long range.

And right in his path, back to him, her eyes fixed straight at me, was Asuna.

If she didn't move now, there would be no escape. Kirito couldn't waste time racing over to her. But that kind of logical reasoning went out the window.

"Asuna, jump to your right!" I shouted as I dashed toward her. There were other players in the breath range, of course, but my tunnel vision was fixed on no one but the hooded fencer. She must have sensed the danger approaching from behind in my voice and expression. She leapt as I commanded, not bothering to turn around.

As soon as her boots left the black paving stone, I reached her and slipped my left arm around her slender body, leaping in the same direction to add to our momentum. Even at full strength, the jump speed was unbearably slow. The arabesque pattern in the floor flowed past, glacial in pace…

The right side of his vision went pure white.

The dry shockwave that hit him was exactly a clap of thunder. Asterios the Taurus Kings breath attack was not poison or fire but lightning. And by the time we realized it, the both of us, and over twenty other players in the raid, were enveloped in its white blaze.

There was no such thing as attack, healing, or support magic in Sword Art Online. But that didn't mean that all traces of magic were absent from the game world. There was an infinite variety of magical items to be found that raised stats or provided buff effects, and the blessing of an NPC priest at a church in one of the bigger towns granted a player's weapon a temporary holy effect.

But those supernatural effects did not exist solely for our benefit. In fact, the majority were a detriment. For example, the many special attack skills employed by monsters: poison, fire, ice, and lightning breath.

The most powerful breath attack in terms of damage was fire, but lightning was no joke. For one, it was instantaneous–it traveled the full length of its range in the instant it was unleashed.

Worse, it had a very high chance of stunning its victims, with the worst-case scenario involving an even more dangerous debuff.

Asuna and Kirito took Asterios's lightning breath to the legs, and both lost close to 20 percent of our health in one go. A green border began to blink around the gauge, and a debuff icon of the same color appeared as well.

Instantly, he felt my physical senses growing distant he couldn't move my legs to land upright, even if he tried. Asuna and him slammed into the ground on their backs. This was no mere tumble effect–after all of my warnings, we were now paralyzed.

"Asu...na," he rasped. She was laid across his chest like an immobile plank. "Heal with...potion."

I tried desperately to move my stiff hand. There were two red HP potions and one green paralysis antidote in the belt pouch on my right side. Somehow, I felt around and grabbed the green one, popped the cork and held it up to my lips, even as the rumbling footsteps grew closer.

Once I finished the minty liquid, I hesitantly looked up to see that the massive taurus king was barely ten yards away. His attack had hit several other players with paralysis, and over a dozen of them littered the ground between us and him.

The other thirty one players who escaped the lightning breath were making their way around the slowly moving boss, but they weren't sure how to react. The reason why was clear: The raid's leader and sub-leader, Lind and Kibaou, were both paralyzed, and the closest to the boss's position. They were desperately trying to give orders, but a whisper was the best anyone suffering from paralysis could produce. None of the players outside Asterios's attack range could hear them.

But very close to my ears came the sound of a fragile, beautiful voice.

"Why...did you come?"

He looked back to see two very large hazel eyes right in front of his face. Asuna was collapsed directly on top of him, empty potion bottle clutched in her hand. She repeated herself. "Why...?"

She was asking me why he'd run toward her when he realized the taurus's breath attack was coming, rather than darting directly out of harm's way. He also wondered what the answer was himself, but it did not become apparent All he could say was "I don't know."

And for reasons that were once again a mystery to me, she smiled gently, closed her eyes, and set her hooded head against my shoulder.

He looked over Asuna's back to see Asterios raising his massive hammer high overhead. The crushing implement, twice as large as even Baran's, was aimed right at Lind and Kibaou.

So this is it, I he told himself. If our two leaders died, the rest of the raid party would flee out of the boss chamber, leaving behind the ten or so paralyzed, including me and Asuna, to die...But at some later point in time, they would be able to use the information gleaned from Asterios's appearance and attacks to launch a second attempt The worst regret of all this was that I wasn't able to save Asuna and her limitless potential. As he'd told her after the first-floor boss, she could have one day led an enormous guild and been a leader to the player population. Like a shooting star, endlessly lighting up the sky of this dark, hopeless game of death.

He hallucinated a strange light, passing across the ceiling of the dim chamber.

Wait… it couldn't be.

Ainz had somehow managed to walk on the ceiling of the chamber, a bug of some sort must had occurred and thus had been able to avoid the boss's Agro range.

He held a vial of purple liquid on his hand and drunk it.

No, there was no drinking animation, he had it on his mouth.

He jumped off the celing landing to the boss's face.

"Oh god please work" he said as he altered the poison in his mouth to further increase it's chances.

And then he spat it all over the boss's eyes.

The boss roared in rage as his face had a purple tinge in, two icons popped up.

He had managed to both poison and blind him.

"Everyone! Quickly tend to the ones with status effects while the boss is confused, watch out for attacks, he might attack randomly but his hit/miss ratio will be high on the miss side!"

The other players quickly shared the green potions to the ones that had been given status effects.

Ainz rushed next to Asuna and Kirito and whispered to him "Guess you bought yourself some brownie points uh?"

Kirito grinned as Ainz put the bottles to both their mouths.

"You two, drink some pots… try not to get in the way of that breath attack, the two idiots are shocked up but they managed to take them out of attack range of the boss" Ainz informed.

Kirito and Asuna both nodded and took a healing potion.

After 2 fights with mid-bosses all the players were mentally exhausted and with the apperance of the boss it made morale falter, not to mention about it's breath attack.

Kayaba was quite cunning, he set an elaborate trap, trying to make it seem as it was on the beta, only to send the true boss.

Ainz was ready to attack but what the data told him was that this boss was highly resistant to melee attacks, he had a breath attack that automatically activated when a predeteminated amount of players were outside his melee attacks, and his rediculous attack power when on melee.

If **he** was here this would make it easier.

About thirty feet from the entrance, a small figure clutching a bizarre weapon was staring up at the looming giant with a resolute look on his face.

"Isn't that–?!" Agil cried in surprise as he dropped us on the floor against the wall. And it wasn't just him–virtually everyone in the chamber was staring with shock at this new, forty-nineth player.

Not because he had suddenly appeared just before the boss routed them, or because he used a strange and unfamiliar weapon. It was because we had all seen this man hammering away at an anvil in the eastern plaza of Taran just a few days ago. It was Nezha the blacksmith.

He was dressed much differently now, of course. The brown leather apron was replaced by a bronze breastplate, gauntlets of the same material, and an open-faced helmet. But the image of a beardless dwarf that his short, stocky build and round, dour face created hadn't been neutralized by this new look; if anything, his accentuated it.

The entire raid was shocked that a blacksmith would be here, participating in the boss raid, with only two exceptions: Asuna, Ainz and Kirito, the ones who'd convinced him to change careers in the first place. Kirito was surprised as well, of course, but only because he hadn't expected him to be able to charge straight through the labyrinth alone, after just three days of training.

But there were others here who would be shocked in a much different way from the rest of us. As soon as the thought occurred to me, a group rushed forward from the raid party in the center of the room. They came to a stop once they reached an angle that gave them a clear view of Nezha's face around the side of the boss. It was team G...the Legend Braves.

"Nez..." Orlando started to call the name of his missing partner, but he held back at the last instant. It seemed the Braves were still trying to hide the fact that Nezha was part of their guild.

For an instant, Nezha looked back at his silent former companions with a pained look, but he composed himself and yelled, "I'll draw the boss away! Get everyone back on their feet now, while you can!"

Asterios's walking speed–for the first of his many HP bars, at least–was quite slow. If Nezha used the hundred-yard hall effectively, he could probably continue to occupy the enemy's attention all by himself. If he held out until all of the rest of the paralyzed had recovered, we might be able to evacuate the entire raid group safely…

But no. It wouldn't work. The boss moved slowly, yes, but he had that instantaneous lightning breath to make up for it. There was no way to dodge that onslaught on your very first encounter with it. And based on the moment of Nezha's appearance, he probably hadn't seen Asterios's first attack.

"Agil, warn him about..."

The breath attack, Kirito wanted to say, but he was already too late. Asterios stopped still and pulled his head back again, sucking in breath. His chest puffed up into a round ball, and little sparks crackled out of his nostrils. Nezha was standing still, looking up at the boss's head.

"Move..." he rasped.

"Get out of the way!" someone in the raid shouted. But Nezha nimbly leapt aside before the words were even out of his mouth. The next instant, a brilliant cone of white lightning shot from the boss's gaping mouth. The breath attack reached nearly to the exit of the room, but Nezha was clear of its path by a good six feet.

The way he moved...Did he know exactly when to dodge?

Kirito's eyes went wide, and he suddenly heard a very familiar voice...but not one I would have expected to hear here, of all places.

"The boss's eyes glow just before the breath attack."

He looked up from the floor, stunned, to see the tile pattern on the wall warp out of place. An even smaller figure than Nezha appeared out of thin air. My mouth fell open (as did Asuna's and Agil's, if he had to guess) as he stared at that familiar whiskered face–Argo the Rat, the information dealer.

It was only afterward that I learned that she'd undertaken a series of quests beginning in the jungle outside the labyrinth that eventually earned her information on Asterios the Taurus King, the true boss of this floor. She learned not just his attack patterns, but the best way to counteract him–such as staggering him with a thrown weapon to the crown atop his head.

When Argo discovered that quest, she zipped around turning in objectives, and only finished just after the raid party entered the labyrinth. Messages couldn't reach anyone in a dungeon, and it was a question whether Argo and her agility-heavy build could make it through the labyrinth alone.

As she wavered with indecision outside the tower, she happened across Nezha, who was also preparing to brave the dangers of the labyrinth alone. They worked together–using Argo's Hiding skill and Nezha's throwing weapons to avoid or lure mobs out of their way–and reached the boss chamber just before Asterios appeared and threw the battle into chaos.

"Why are you still lying around? You're not you two can let Ainz-bou carry the raid alone can you? ," Argo said. I finally noticed that they had not moved even though the effects wore off.

"Argo-neechan! Glad you could make it… I got a bet with Kirito-nii… to see who takes the LA… wanna be the judge?" Ainz said with a smile.

Argo smiled and patted Ainz as she discretely took some screenshots… for information dealing, nothing more.

"We need at least 60 percent of us dealing melee damage to the boss, Nezha-san you need to attack the crown to disrupt his breath attack in case it activates under other conditions, I will analyze the boss more and see what else I can gleam out of it" Ainz said as his eyes got sharper.

Asterios' body was deconstructed in Ainz eyes, he did not need the digital image of the monster, nor the wire frame, no...He needed something more.

Command data.

The data that made the monster act act the way he does, the AI and statistics.

Once he went into the yellow his walking speed would increase by 1.5 times, once he goes into the red it would go up by 1.5 and will go berserk as well, his attack power would go up by 2 times more.

Ainz recorded it's attack patterns and overall power and how to compensate for the power the boss had.

His current level would not be enough, he had to work with the rest of the players to finish this floor's boss.

A quick look around told me that nearly everyone else had recovered from their paralysis. Lind and Kibaou were on their feet, but Kirito saw Argo marching over toward them. For an instant, he even forgot that Nezha was single-handedly keeping the boss occupied.

Argo the Rat was, along with me, one of the most prominent publicly known beta testers in the game, Ainz, the speedy terror and Lind and Kibaou were leaders of the anti-tester movement. As I expected, Lind didn't even pretend to hide his disgust, while Kibaou's expression was more uneasy and uncertain.

"Hey, spiky. Long time no see," Argo greeted Kibaou, ignoring Lind entirely. That's when it hit Kirito.

Kibaou was the very man who'd attempted to buy his Anneal Blade through Argo. It was the kind of shady dealing that no leader would want associated with him, and Argo could sell the details to anyone who paid the price.

He didn't respond to her greeting, so she continued, "If you're gonna pull out, better do it now. But if you want info, I can sell it to you. For the low, low price of...nothing."

The moment Asterios's lightning breath hit Lind and Kibaou, they were at the greatest risk of dying of anyone in the raid. So it was a bit of a surprise to me that after just a few seconds of deliberation, they chose to continue the fight. Of course, we wouldn't know if that was the right choice or not until the end of the fight. But the tables had turned significantly since the moment just after the boss appeared. Nezha had successfully pulled Asterios's aggro for over two minutes, giving the rest of the raid enough time to recover from paralysis and refill their HP. On top of that, now we had the details on the boss's patterns.

"All right, let's begin the attack! Teams A and D, forward!" Lind ordered. The heavily armored tanks rushed in at King Asterios. Their body-blow charge hit him in the legs, finally drawing his attention away from Nezha.

Instantly, he started to sway, as though all of the tension keeping him upright had snapped. Asuna and I raced over.

"Nezha!"

The former blacksmith looked up, his expression as weak as usual...but with a new core of strength behind his smile. He held up the throwing weapon in his right hand.

It was the weapon he'd given him–a thick, bladed, circular throwing tool about eight inches across. The only way to get it at this point was as a rare drop from the Taurus Ringhurler enemies in this labyrinth. It fell under the Chakram subcategory of throwing knives, but unlike the actual chakrams from ancient India, this one had a leather grip along part of the circle. The grip made it useful for both throwing like a disc, or augmenting a punch like a set of brass knuckles.

Because of that versatility, chakrams in SAO couldn't be used with the Throwing Knives skill alone. They also required the mastery of Martial Arts, the extra skill that could only be learned from the bearded master hidden deep in the mountains.

As he said himself three days ago, he could hit monsters with a thrown weapon without having to worry too much about his perspective issues. But orthodox throwing knives were a quantifiable weapon that ran out over time and weren't suited for a main weapon. But the chakram was like a boomerang: It returned to the thrower's hand automatically. Thanks to that, he didn't need to worry about ammunition.

Nezha steadied his weary legs and held up his chakram. The was glowing yellow. Even though he was the one who'd given him the weapon, he didn't know the name of this sword skill.

"Yaah!"

With a powerful cry, his hand flashed, and the sparkling ring flew high in the air. It raced across the ceiling, a brilliant burst of light, and hit Asterios on the crown with perfect accuracy as he raised his giant hammer. There was another high-pitched clang, and the boss's muscled torso writhed. One of the attackers in Kibaou's team shouted, "Nice!" from the taurus king's feet.

The chakram hurtled back with alarming speed and smacked right back into Nezha's hand, thanks to the assistance of the game engine. He turned to him and Asuna and smiled again as though he were about to burst into tears.

"It's like a dream come true. Here I am...in the boss battle, playing a role..."

His voice quavered and died out there. Nezha swallowed and tried again.

"I'll be fine! Go ahead and join the battle!"

"All right. Do your best to read his lightning breath ahead of time and stagger him before he uses it. You're the key to our victory!"

"Hey, Kirito," Agil rumbled from behind, with an odd tone in his voice and an empty bottle in his hand, "You said you weren't a pair, right?"

Asuna straightened up and pivoted on her heel. Her voice was frosty.

"We are not."

"We are a team nee-san stop that" Ainz said as he gave her a hug.

"Team E, pull back! Team H, up forward!" Lind commanded.

Kirito held up my free hand and clenched his Anneal Blade +6. Even if it was our turn in the rotation, it spoke to Lind's fairness as a leader that he didn't try to hold us back.

"Okay, hang on," Ainz said, waiting for the right timing. "Go!"

We darted in to take the place of green team E along the boss's left flank. First, Asuna and I traded off with single skills against those tree-trunk legs. The monster roared in rage and swiped at us, which Agil and his friends blocked as they switched in.

Asterios's size was certainly frightening, but on the other hand, the larger a monster was, the more people could attack it at once. One full party was all that could fight Colonel Nato at a time, while two could tackle General Baran, and King Asterios was large enough for three at once.

Team H took the left side, blue team B handled him front and center, and Orlando's team G was still tearing away at his right flank. The king's black skin was burning through like coal, a sign of his berserk state, but we were on pace to finish him off with this set.

"Vrrruaaraagh!"

With a terrible, primal roar, Asterios began to suck in air again.

Kirito didn't t need to see the sparks around his mouth to know he was preparing his breath attack. But just as quickly as he started, the chakram flew in and struck him on the crown. Lightning exploded harmlessly from the king's nostrils.

If this was a normal MMO, that 100-percent-guaranteed stagger from the chakram would get nerfed to oblivion, he thought to himself, referring to the practice of reducing its power to restore proper game balance.

Floor bosses in SAO were a one-time affair–once defeated, they would never return. If Akihiko Kayaba was indeed watching over the battle from afar, would he be gnashing his teeth at the sight of his guardian, unable to stay poised long enough to unleash its best attack? Or would he be applauding the ingenuity (and luck) of the players who hit upon this unlikely strategy?

We're going to beat your second floor in just ten days, Kayaba! Kirito thought triumphantly. A glance at the king's HP bar showed just a tiny sliver of red about to disappear. He raged even harder, stomping three times in succession before raising his hammer! Team B pulled back, recognizing the Numbing Detonation motion, while team G readied their best sword skills.

If the Legend Braves seized the Last Attack bonus here, they'd go from the backup force during the Bullbous Bow fight to the best fighters in the game. But he wasn't charitable enough to sit back and let them reap those rewards. He had a beater reputation to uphold not to mention he had a bet with Ainz. "Now, Asuna!"

Kirito leapt as high as he could. The fencer kept right up with me–in fact, her jumping speed was faster than mine. The force ripped the hood off of her head, and long chestnut-brown hair flowed through the air.

Ainz attacked rushing with his Anneal Blade.

He hit it's legs, making it stumble forward.

"Vraaaah!"

Asterios brought down the hammer. A circular shockwave spread from the impact point, followed by bursts of sparks. Two of the Braves couldn't fully resist, succumbing to the stun effect of this final attack. Numbing Impact was weaker, but Detonation couldn't be avoided just by jumping, so Asuna and Ainz would suffer the same effects once they touched the ground.

But…

"Sey-yaaaa!"

Asuna unleashed a fierce cry and shot off the rapier charge attack Shooting Star in midair.

"Rrrmaaah!"

Kirito followed her with the one-handed sword charge attack Sonic Leap. They both shot up vertically, followed by trails of blue and green light. They were headed straight for the forehead of King Asterios, which was protected by his metal crown.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the flashing of the three mobile members of the Legend Braves firing off their own sword skills.

The next instant, Kirito's Anneal Blade and Asuna's Wind Fleuret pierced the crown entirely and sank deep into the enemy's head. The crown splintered and cracked into pieces.

The massive body of King Asterios burst in an explosion that filled the entire coliseum chamber.

"Awww man… I did not get the LA" Ainz groaned.

Kirito tskd… as it was Asuna who held the boss LA.

"Congratulations," came a familiar voice, making a familiar statement in English with a familiar native accent. Asuna, Ainz and Kirito turned, exhausted after the long battle, to see Agil's smiling face. His meaty hand was curved into a thumbs-up, which Kirito returned. Asuna didn't bother with that, but there was a rare smile on her beautiful face.

Ainz had stuck his blade on the floor and was lying against it, he was overworked.

Agil lowered his hand and let his eyes gaze into the distance.

"Your skill and teamwork are as brilliant as ever. But this victory doesn't belong to you...it's his."

"Yeah. If it wasn't for him, we'd have lost at least ten people in this fight," Kirito replied. Asuna nodded in agreement.

Standing done on the far side of the celebrating mass of players was the small figure of Nezha the former blacksmith. He stared up at the ceiling, watching the vanishing fragments of the boss, golden ring clutched in his hand.

Kirito was distracted by a sudden cheer that rose from the group. At the center, Lind and Kibaou were locked in a bracing handshake. The blue and green squads were applauding wildly, and he joined in by clapping.

"Sheesh. They're best friends after all..."

"At least until we reach the third floor," Ainz noted sardonically. He got to his feet, whispered thanks to his Anneal Blade for its duty, and returned it to the sheath.

We learned two lessons from this battle.

One, fulfill every quest around the last town and the labyrinth, because they might impart info on the boss.

And two, we had to assume that every boss from this point on had been changed in some way from the beta test. Of course, we'd (beta players) only made it to the ninth floor in the beta, so once we reached the tenth, it was all new to us regardless.

Not only did gathering info through quests become important, but so would scouting out the boss first. The latter would not be easy, however. Most boss monsters didn't appear until you reached the back of the chamber and destroyed some key object, so there was no guarantee that a reconnaissance party would escape safely. There were a fair number of speedy scout types among us, but very few that could use throwing tools.

From this point on, the role of Nezha the chakram-thrower, as well as Argo, would become even more crucial.

He took a quick look around the room and didn't see the Rat, even with his Search skill–she must be hiding again. He nudged Asuna and made their way over to Nezha.

Ainz was very much exhausted mentally.

When the ex-blacksmith saw us, he smiled radiantly, as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Nezha bowed and said, "Great work, Kirito and Asuna. That last midair sword skill was incredible."

"Well, actually..."

He scratched my head uncomfortably. He didn't want to tell him that it was just him trying to make sure he beat Orlando's group to the prize. Instead, Asuna answered for me.

"Incredible? That was your appearance. How did you manage to use a brand-new weapon with such skill? You must have practiced quite a lot."

"No, it didn't seem hard to me. I mean, I finally got to be what I'd always wanted. Really...thank you so much. Now I have..."

He trailed off and bowed deeply one more time, then turned back to face the center of the room. Kirito followed his gaze and saw a group of five about twenty yards from the crowd. They were lined up and exchanging handshakes–Orlando with Lind, Beowulf with Kibaou, and the three others with other leading players. They wore the proud smiles of true heroes.

If you looked at the results screen for the battle against Asterios, the score based on damage defended and caused by the Legend Braves would easily outclass any other team. They'd found their place front and center among the best players in the game. He didn't know if they'd end up joining Lind's Dragon Knights or Kibaou's Liberation Squad, or if they'd start their own guild. But…

"Nezha, shouldn't you be there with them?" I asked.

But the single most important person in the fight simply shook his head.

"No, it's fine. There's something else I still need to do."

"Huh? What's that?" Kirito asked. Nezha looked at him and then at Asuna, whose brows were furrowed in apparent understanding. He bowed once more, then lovingly traced the surface of his chakram's blade with a finger, and began to walk away.

That's when he noticed that three players from the raid were coming this way. At first, he assumed they were coming to thank and congratulate Nezha, but their faces were hard.

After examining the tall man in front with the broadsword, he finally realized why. This man, now wearing a breastplate over the blue doubly of Lind's group, was none other than Shivata, the man who'd asked Nezha to upgrade his sword five days ago. Next to him was another man in blue, and the third wore the green of Kibaou's team. They were all scowling.

Shivata pulled up in front of the Nezha and growled, "You're the blacksmith who was working in Urbus and Taran just a few days ago, aren't you?"

"...Yes," Nezha replied.

"Why did you switch to a fighter? And how'd you get that rare weapon? It's a drop-only item, isn't it? Did you make that much money from smithing?"

Oh, no.

Shivata's tone of voice said that he already suspected Nezha of shady dealing. Even if he didn't have a clue about the weapon switching trick, he was clearly guessing that some kind of foul play had occurred.

In truth, Nezha's chakram was a rare weapon, but not particularly valuable. After all, it required both the Throwing Knives supplementary skill and the Martial Arts extra skill to use. But explaining all of that wouldn't remove the suspicion from Shivata's mind.

Eventually, all of the celebrating players fell silent, including Lind, Kibaou, and the Legend Braves, watching this new turn of events. Most had looks of grave concern, but even at a distance, the panic and tension on the faces of the Legend Braves was written plain as day.

In the moment, neither Kirito nor Asuna knew what to do.

It would be easy to speak up and say that he gave him that chakram. But was deflecting the brunt of Shivata's anger and forcing him to back down really the right choice?

It was undeniable truth that Nezha had seized Shivata's precious, treasured Stout Blade and broken a spent weapon in exchange.

Shivata used all of his willpower to control himself at that moment. He left without insulting or blaming Nezha. The broadsword he wore now was two ranks below his old Stout Blade. Shivata had done his best to power it up in the five days between then and now, and had managed to survive through this terrible battle. Did we really have the right to trick him again, to lead him away from the truth?

Nezha sidestepped my indecision entirely. He laid his chakram on the ground and got down on his knees, then pressed his hands to the ground and lowered his head.

"I deceived you, Shivata, and the two others with you. I switched out your swords before attempting to upgrade them, replacing them with spent weapons that I broke instead."

The coliseum was full of a silence even heavier than the one before the battle, ear-piercing and thick.

Sword Art Online had an astonishing system of recreating players' emotions on their virtual avatars, but if there was one glaring weakness, it was a tendency to exaggerate for effect. I hadn't seen it for myself, but from what others said, it took very little time for sadness to manifest as tears. A happy feeling translated to a wide smile, and anger was represented by a reddened face and a bulging vein on the forehead.

So the fact that Shivata's only response was a furrowed brow was a true testament to his self-control. By contrast, the two men at his sides looked as though they were ready to explode, but they held it in as well.

Kirito looked over at Asuna and saw that she was trying to suppress her feelings as well, but her face was visibly paler than usual. He must have looked the same way.

Shivata's hoarse voice finally broke the painful silence.

"Do you still have the weapons you stole?" Nezha shook his head, hands still firmly on the floor.

"No...I already sold them for money," he rasped.

Shivata clenched his eyes shut at the answer, but he knew it was coming. He only grunted and then asked, "Can you pay me back the value?"

This time, Nezha had no immediate answer, Asuna and Kirito held their breath, Ainz just looked at the scene with no emotion, just looking at it as it was a boring part in a movie. Far behind Shivata, standing at the left edge of the raid, Orlando's group was visibly uncomfortable.

In terms of simple feasibility, the sum of money that he'd taken from them was far from impossible to raise again.

Only ten days had passed since Nezha and the Legend Braves had started their fraud. The market prices for those items couldn't have changed that much, so if they sold off the assets they'd bought with the money they received, it should turn back into roughly the same amount.

But that was where the problem lay.

It wasn't just Nezha who had spent the money they'd unfairly earned, but the entire Legend Braves. The brightly gleaming armor covering their bodies was that very sum of money in physical form. In order to pay back their victims in Col, Orlando and his group would have to sell off their equipment. After they'd just played a major role in this boss battle, would they really just give up the source of their power? And more fundamentally, how did Nezha plan to get out of this situation?

As Kiriro watched, holding his breath, the short ex-blacksmith answered, forehead still scraped against the floor tiles.

"No...I cannot repay you now. I used all of the money on all-you-can-eat meals at expensive restaurants, and high-priced inns." Asuna sucked in a sharp breath.

Nezha wasn't trying to weasel his way out of anything.

He was going to take responsibility for all of the crimes, and force Shivata and the others to focus their anger and hatred solely on him. He was covering for his companions, the ones who treated him like a nuisance and egged him into committing those acts.

Ainz smiled gently at this "Perhaps there is hope left…" he muttered to himself.

The large member of Lind's team to Shivata's right finally snapped.

"You...why, you filthy–!" He raised a clenched fist and stomped his right foot on the ground multiple times. "Do you have any idea what it's like to see your favorite, beloved sword smashed to pieces?! And you sold it off...to have yourself a feast?! To stay in deluxe hotels?! Then you use the rest to buy yourself a valuable weapon, barge into the boss battle, and fancy yourself a hero?!"

Kibaou's companion on the left shrieked, "When I lost my sword, I thought I'd never fight on the front line again! But my friends donated some funds to me and helped me gather materials...You didn't just betray us, you stabbed everyone fighting to complete this game in the back!" And like a lit fuse, those shouts caused all the other players who'd been silently watching this scene to explode.

"Traitor!"

"Do you have any idea what you've done?!"

"You caused our pace to slow down!"

"Apologizing isn't going to fix anything!"

Dozens of voices overlapped into one mass of angry noise. Nezha's lonely back shrank, as though succumbing to the pressure of all that rage.

When the crowd's anger at beta testers threatened to explode during the planning for the first-floor boss battle, Agil had been the voice of reason. But there was nothing he could do here. He and his companions stood off at a distance, watching pensively.

Orlando's group was equally quiet. The five of them were whispering to each other, but it was inaudible over all the angry bellowing.

Kirito couldn't do anything but watch, either. There was no magic word to solve the situation at this point. Now that the truth of Shivata's weapon was open knowledge, the only thing that could mend the wrongdoing was an equal sum of Col, or something similarly heavy…

Suddenly, he remembered something Nezha had said minutes before.

He finally got to be what'd always wanted. Really...thank you so much. Now I have…

...nothing left to regret.

Those were the final words he'd said, the ones I couldn't hear.

"Nezha...you can't mean..." Kirito mumbled.

One of the two people who had the power to bring this scene to a close strode forward, his hand held high. Blue hair and blue cape. A shining silver scimitar at his waist. Lind, the leader of the raid.

Shivata's trio stepped back to give him the stage, and the furious shouts that filled the chamber gradually died down. When it was at least quiet enough to have a conversation, he spoke.

"Will you tell us your name?"

At that point, he realized that Nezha was never a part of the raid party as classified by the system. It was one thing for Argo, who passed on her info and split, but Nezha took on a crucial role in hitting the boss's weak point. He deserved to be part of the raid, and we'd been one short of the limit, anyway. The only team with five members was G...the Legend Braves.

Something rubbed him wrong about the fact that Orlando hadn't extended a party offer to Nezha, a friend since before the days of SAO. But more important than that was how Lind decided to rule on this situation.

"...It's Nezha," the ex-blacksmith said, still prostrate on the ground. Lind nodded a few times. His features were sharp by nature, but he looked more nervous now than he did in the midst of the battle. He cleared his throat.

"I see. Your cursor is still green, Nezha...but that speaks to the severity of your crime. If you'd committed a properly recognized crime and turned orange, it would be possible to return it to green through good karma quests. But no quest will wipe your sins clean now. If you cannot repay what you owe to others in the game...we will have to find a different means of punishment."

He can't, he thought to myself, teeth gritted. Lind's thin lips grimaced, then opened again.

Ainz however held his arm to not let him move.

"There is more in here than what it seems… this is a show for the true evil one" Ainz whispered.

"It was not just swords that you stole from Shivata and others. It was a great amount of time that they poured into those blades. Therefore..."

Some of the weight lifted off my shoulders. Lind was about to demand that Nezha pay back his crimes by contributing to the game's advancement, and most likely regular payments over a long-term period. It was the same punishment that Diavel would have meted out if this had happened ten days earlier.

However…

Before Lind could finish, a high-pitched voice drowned him out. "No...it wasn't just time that he stole!"

A green-clad member of Kibaou's team ran forward. His skinny body shook left and right as he screeched–

"I...I know the truth! There are plenty more players he stole weapons from! One of them had to use a cheap store-bought weapon, and ended up getting killed by mobs he'd handled just fine before!"

The vast, masterless chamber fell silent once more.

After a few seconds, the blue-clad man next to Shivata spoke again, his voice hoarse.

"If...if someone died because of this...then he's not just a swindler anymore. He's a puh...puh..."

The scrawny green man jabbed a finger forward and said what the other one couldn't.

"That's right! He's a murderer! A PKer!"

It was the first time he'd heard the term PK in the open since we'd been trapped in the flying castle, besides from Ainz.

The mood had changed, the people were showing a lot of blood list and animosity.

They all called for his death.

Suddenly the chamber was full with a roar of noise. Dozens of players were shouting all at once: "Yeah, pay the price!"

"Go apologize to the ones who died!"

"Live by the PK, die by the PK!" Their cries grew more and more overt until spilling into direct threats.

"Pay with your life, fraudster!"

"Settle your account by dying, you PK-ing bastard!"

"Kill him! Kill the filthy scheming scum!"

Kirito couldn't help but feel like the rage on their faces wasn't entirely anger at his crime. There was fury and hatred for the game of Sword Art Online that had trapped them here, as well. It was the thirty-eighth day since we'd been locked in this flying fortress. Ninety-eight floors remained to conquer. The overwhelming, desperate pressure of those astronomical odds had finally found an outlet, a target ripe for punishment: a swindler and murderer among our ranks.

Neither Lind nor Kibaou had the means to resolve this situation now. Even he'd just been sitting on his heels the entire time, watching the scene unfold, since Nezha had admitted to his crimes. His eyes wandered until they happened across the five Legend Braves standing at the side of the raid. They weren't shouting like the others but staring down at the ground, avoiding looking at Nezha.

You should have known this could happen someday, Orlando...Didn't you ever see it coming? He asked silently, but there was no answer. In fact, if he was making accusations, the same went for the man in the black poncho who'd taught them the trick. If he was generous enough to show them a fancy trick for free, why didn't he explain the potential dangers to them?

Unless…

What if this situation–the group turning on Nezha, demanding his execution–was exactly what the black poncho was hoping for in return?

In that case, what he wanted was not the help of the Braves, but the opposite. He wanted Nezha to be killed at the express desire of all the top players in the game for his direct role in the scam. That would create a precedent for direct player-on-player killing and lower the mental hurdle to reaching the act of murder across Aincrad.

"It seems that you came to the truth, this is why we have to keep our eyes peeled, the true culprit will try to keep them agitated, his true motive was this all along" Ainz said as he continued to sweep around the area with his eyes.

If his fears were correct, that man in the black poncho was the real PKer here. But rather than soil his own hands with the act, he set up other players to do the dirty work for him, dragging them down to his level.

Amidst the hail of jeers, someone finally moved into action. Not Lind, not Kibaou, not even Nezha–but the Legend Braves. They slowly crossed the vast room, metal armor clanking, toward the prostrate Nezha. Orlando's bascinet visor was half-down, so I couldn't see his face. The other four marched in step with him, their faces downcast.

The semicircle of Lind, the dagger user, and Shivata sensed that something was happening, and they stepped back to make room for the newcomers.

The group came to a halt with heavy footsteps. Nezha must have sensed the approach of his former comrades, but he did not look up. His fists were still balled on the floor, his forehead pressed to the tile. Orlando stopped directly across from Nezha, the chakram placed on the floor in between. His right hand moved to his left side. Asuna gasped.

His gauntleted hand gripped the hilt of his sword and pulled. Orlando's weapon was, like mine, an Anneal Blade. It appeared to be powered up to a similar level. If he was going to strike Nezha's unprotected back, it would only take three or four hits to finish the job.

"Orlando..." Kirito called out the name of the paladin who had just helped defeat the boss monster minutes ago.

You spent far more time with Nezha than I ever did. But he can't stand here and watch you kill him–no matter what that does to my reputation.

However if he did so the true culprit would vanish

I put all of my weight into my right foot, preparing to dart forward the instant he raised his blade. At the same time, I sensed Asuna shifting position as well.

"Don't do anything, Asuna." Kirito said

"No," she said flatly.

"Don't you get it? If you interfere with this, you won't be allowed among this group anymore. You might even be labeled a criminal."

"I still won't stop. Don't you remember what I said the first time we met? I left the Town of Beginnings so that I could be myself."

"..."

He didn't have any time or arguments with which to convince her she might not understand Ainz plan. Instead, he merely signed in resignation and nodded.

Somehow, the angry shouting that filled the coliseum had turned to silence again, everyone watched wide-eyed, waiting with bated breath for the fateful moment.

And perhaps because he was concentrating so hard...he picked out the quiet voice from Orlando's helmet, even though he was nowhere near close enough to hear it. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry, Nezuo."

The paladin laid down his sword next to the chakram on the ground. He took a few steps and got down on his knees next to Nezha, facing the same direction, removed his helmet, and put his hands flat on the tile.

Beowulf, Cuchulainn, Gilgamesh, and Enkidu followed his lead, setting down their weapons and helmets and getting into a line with Nezha at the center.

Amid dead silence, the five–no, six Legend Braves bowed in apology to the rest of the raid.

Eventually, Orlando spoke up, his trembling voice the only sound in the coliseum,

"Nezuo...Nezha is our partner. We're the ones who forced him to commit that fraud."

After much deliberation they decided that their punishment would be to start over, to become better persons and help with the progress of the game.

Ainz bit his lip.

The true evil had not made himself apparent and thus continued to be in the shadows.

And so they moved to the 3rd floor.

"Hey… nee-chan, what did you got as a LA?" Ainz asked.

Asuna smiled and put her slender finger to her mouth "Secret" she said.

Chapter end.

Extra story!

 **Aincrad 2nd Floor, November 2022**

Aincrad's second floor's main town «Urbus» is a town located inside a table mountain that measures three hundred meters in diameter, which had been dug up with only the outer circumference remaining.

Once Kirito had gone through the southern gate, the words [INNER AREA] floated up into his vision, and the slow tempo of the town's BGM started playing. Unlike the music led by string instruments in each town on the first floor, the main melody here was played with a sorrowful oboe tone. The NPCs passing by also had subtle changes in the design of their garments, giving it a 'new floor' feel.

After walking about ten meters from the gate, I started looking at my surroundings. I he couldn't see any green cursors which indicated players at all, but that was only natural. Of course, that was because the guardian of the continuous spiral stairs to this second floor, the boss monster of the first floor, «Illfang the Kobold Lord» was just defeated forty minutes ago, and every member of the boss-capturing party aside from me and Ainz had returned to base.

In other words, at this moment, on the vast second floor, the only two existing players was myself— the «Former beta tester» and now «Beater», Kirito and the small child fighter Ainz.

Although that was the case, obviously, this situation wouldn't continue on for much longer. That was because exactly two hours after the floor boss' annihilation, the «Transfer Gate» at the center of the main town of the next floor (which was Urbus) would be automatically activated, connecting it to the main town on the lower floors. At that time, the large crowd of players, who were watching on the lower floor, would rush out from the gate.

Conversely, if he wished to, he could spend the remaining hour and twenty minutes monopolizing this town — or this floor.

With that much time, we could clear a few slaughter quests two or three times, which he normally had to compete with other players for the pop. It was a very attractive idea to a solo player who ultimately advocated self-interest, however, he didn't have enough courage to seriously anger the several hundreds… or possibly more than a thousand people who were eagerly awaiting the activation of the gate.

Therefore, he started jogging along Urbus' main street which went straight towards the north, ascended the wide stairs before arriving at the town square, and finally started walking toward the large gate set up in the center.

It was called a gate, but it was actually just an arch made of neatly stacked stones. Without a door or any bars, there was nothing to block its other side. However, upon getting closer, he noticed a faint distortion from the empty space in the middle of the arch, as if seeing through a thin film of water.

As he looked around at the surroundings to confirm an escape route, his right hand stretched slowly toward the swaying transparent veil. The fingertip, which was wrapped in a black leather glove, touched the surface of the water, which spread vertically — and at that moment, his field of vision was dyed in an overflowing bright blue light.

The pulsing light spread in circles within the five-meter-wide arch. Once it had filled the entire space, it would be the opening of the Transfer Gate, the so-called «Town Opening». The very same phenomenon would also happen at the gate in each town on the first floor as well, where the crowd of players before that gate would prepare to dash in when they realize that the gate started to activate and they wouldn't have to wait two hours for the automatic opening.

However, after pushing the switch, I

He turned around without watching this phenomenon to its very end.

As he ascertained beforehand, he started a fierce dash to a building, which looked like a church, at the east of the square. After jumping into the entrance and climbing the stairs inside, he put my back against the wall to the side of the window in a small room on the third floor, and looked down upon the square.

Just then, the insides of the gate shone brightly, and the NPC orchestra stationed at the corner of the square started playing a loud «Opening Fanfare».

After a moment, a rapid stream of numerous multi colored players spilled out from the blue light-filled gate.

Some people stood inside the square while looking around. Others ran off with a leather map from the information dealer in one hand. And — there were people who raised their fists and shouting "I'm on the second floor—!"

During the beta test, there was a total of nine «Town Openings», the scene, during those times, were the lines of the raid party members who had defeated the previous floor's boss, being bathed in the generous applause and admiration from the players from the lower floors. However, this time the only person who was the «Opener» had already escaped, so that event didn't occur. There was a group of people who were looking restlessly around, it could be that they were looking for him, but unfortunately, they wouldn't be able to find his name there.

Over half an hour earlier, soon after defeating the boss, he had made an announcement in front of more than forty raid members. It was that him, «Kirito», wasn't just a mere Beta Tester, but a «Beater», who had reached the highest floor among the thousand testers, and had accumulated the most knowledge of the game.

He didn't want to act so nasty, but it was partly a reaction to avert the hostility from the new players to the former testers; and as a result, currently, his infamy had spread among the highest leveled players at an ultra-high-speed. If he went out of his hiding place, far from receiving congratulatory remarks, it wouldn't be strange to hear boos and jeers.

In that situation, he certainly didn't have enough emotional strength to remain calm like a willow in the wind.

Therefore, he would have to continue hiding on the third floor of the church until the commotion in the transfer square died down. —However,

"…Huh?"

He muttered quietly after seeing an unusual event at the square down below.

A female player who had just warped out of the Transfer Gate did not stop, but continued ferociously dashing towards the western side of the town. If it was just that, it could be seen as hurrying to the weapon shop or the quest NPC, but the problem was the two men who came out of the gate right after her. They took a moment to look around, and once they had spotted the player who was running away, they started running in the same direction. From the looks of it, it was «Two guys chasing a girl».

"Wait, isn't that nee-san?" Ainz said as he watched the female run away from her pursuers.

I quickly dashed with my AGI-focused parameter before the players at the square could notice me, and jumped to the roof of the nearby building. I kept going without dropping down to the ground, aiming to the direction Argo and the two guys went. It was possible to do so due to the consistent height of the buildings in Urbus.

I waved my right hand's finger while I was running and called out the main window. After clicking «Searching» from the skill tab, I selected «Tracking» on the floated up sub-menu. When I entered the name 【Argo】 into the input window, pale green illuminated footprints appeared on the road on my lower right field of vision.

«Tracking» was a modification that could be learned after the proficiency of the «Searching» skill had increased. It was normally used to raise effectiveness while hunting monsters, but it could also be used to pursue a player who was registered as friend. However, as his proficiency was still low, the footprints that could be seen were from a minute ago. He hastily chased after the disappearing lines of the small shoe soles.

Argo's focus was on AGI, so for her to be unable to shake off the chasing two guys, they must not be ordinary players.

Although I didn't see them among the boss raid, their levels should be top-class. In addition, the footprints that went straight along the road toward the west, had exit to the outside through the city gate which was dug out of the outer rim of the crater.

The western plains of Urbus was a dangerous area with large buffalo type monsters roaming about. The situation was getting worse. Kirito bit his lips and rushed into the virtual savanna without even stopping.

The wasteland area beyond this savanna was still quite risky for his current level to enter alone. But fortunately, the footprints engraved on the thicket were getting more vivid (in other words, Argo had already stopped running), from inside the valley between two small rocky mountains, a familiar voice could be heard.

"…imes I'll still be saying the same thinG! This information, no matter how much you offer, is not for salE!"

That coquettish nasal covering the end of the sentence was obviously Argo's voice, but it was thirty percent more intimidating than usual. It was then followed by a loud voice of a man.

"You don't want to monopolize it, but also don't want to make it public. Doesn't that mean you want to jack up the price-gozaru?"

—Gozaru?' Ainz frowned as he stopped near Kirito's feet before climbing up the nearby cliff. In SAO, by using brain and stubbornness, there were many ways to get through the terrain which looked impossible to trespass at first glance. His ambition was, one day, to try climbing the outer wall of this floating castle to reach the next floor. But at the moment, the reason Kirito and Ainz where climbing this mountain was to get into their blind spot. It wasn't for the challenge, but for safety.

After climbing up for about five meters and reaching a flat, narrow surface, we continued to crawl forward. The general source of the quarrel was right below at that moment.

"It's not a problem about pricE! I told you that I don't want to be blamed after I sold the informatioN!"

The voice of the second man then retorted Argo's words,

"Why would we blame you!? No matter what price you ask, we'd still be expressing our gratitude-gozaru! So just sell us the information about the quest hidden on this floor — the acquisition quest for the «Extra Skill» already!"

…Huh?

Kirito couldn't hold onto his breath upon hearing that sentence. The extra skills were those that wouldn't appear as choices unless some special conditions were met, the so-called «Hidden Skills». The only one he discovered during the beta period was «Meditation», a mental concentration skill (the pose looked like so) that increased the rate of HP recovery and increased the probability to recover from the negative statuses. However, due to its low efficiency and lame pose, not many players took it.

The other was the «Katana» extra skill, which was used by the Kobold Lord and samurai type monsters on the tenth floor, but I still didn't know its prerequisites.

In any case, I'm certain that the topic between Argo and the two mysterious gozaru guys isn't the «Meditation» skill, as the NPC giving this skill is on the sixth floor. That means, there is a flag quest to unlock an extra skill that I still don't know of (also equals to all former beta testers not knowing about it) hidden on this second floor, and these gozaru guys are trying to make Argo sell the information — something like that?

Once I had reached that conclusion, the volume of the guys' voice increased.

"Today, we'll pull it off for sure-gozaru!"

"We'll certainly do anything necessary to get that extra skill-gozaru!"

"You guys just won't understanD—! No matter what you say, I won't sell that information-goza… oops, I won't sell iT!"

Piri— the voltage of the tension in the air seemed to have increased a step higher — at that moment, both, Ainz and Kirito stood up on the stone ledge and jumped to the ground five meters below. We landed in the middle between Argo and the two guys. In order to receive no damage for jumping from that height while still lacking in AGI, they bent their knees and took a defensive posture to absorb the impact damage before quickly standing up.

"—Who are you-gozaru!?"

"Spy from another clan!?"

Just when they saw the shape of the gozaru guys, who were shouting at the same time, a corner of my memories was intensely stimulated. Their entire bodies were clothed in dark grey cloth armor.

It seemed they wore light chain mails on their upper bodies, and the weapons on their back were small sized scimitars. On their heads were bandana caps and pirate masks of the same grey color.

Overall looking, it was the so-called «Ninja» appearance, which was originally and ingeniously reproduced.

"Oh… my… GAWD….roleplayers" Ainz said in a groan.

Argo and Kirito snickered but the Degosaru ninjas felt offended.

Ainz couldn't deal with RPers…

Seeing these guys like that, I also had a hunch that I may have met them during the beta period once or twice.

"Hmm, eeh… you guys are probably, Fu, Fuu…Food, no, Fooga, but that also doesn't sound right…"

"It's Fūma-gozaru!"

"We are Kotarou and Isuke from the guild «Fūmaningun»-gozaru!"

"Oh, that's it!"

Kirito snapped my fingers in satisfaction as they helped him remember who they were. These two were the members of the ridiculously fastest ninja guild which was feared during the beta test period. He should make a note about what was feared first. Every member were just like Argo and focused their parameter on AGI, they would open the battle as the front row and used their AGI wall to confuse the enemy. When it became dangerous, they would use their dashing power to flee, forcing the monster to target nearby parties instead. No matter how he thought about them, they were clearly a group of evil shinobi.

But he didn't know these guys were still going along the ninja path even after SAO official service turned into a death game, which by itself (so far), he had no complaints. However, two vs one, chasing Argo, a female player, and forcefully getting information from her, was a different story.

Ainz made a gesture for Argo, who was behind me, to step back, and moved his finger to the grip of my beloved sword «Anneal Blade +5» hung on his back, Kirito then said,"As a secret agent of the government, I certainly can't overlook this misdeed of the Fūma ninja…"

At that moment—

Under the fake ninja cowls, eyes of Kotarou-shi and Isuke-shi shone brightly.

""You bastard, are you from Iga!?""

"Hah!?"

Apparently, the speech which he thought was appropriate to the mood seemed to have pressed their important switch. Their right hands started to reach, in perfect synchronization, for the ninja katanas on their back (which were actually the small sized scimitars).

No way — are they really unsheathing? But here is the «Outside» with no Anti-Criminal Code, where Players can attack other players and HP would decrease for real. At the same time, the color cursor of the attacking side would turn orange, indicating a «Criminal» status, preventing them from entering towns. Even if they were ninja, they wouldn't be able to deceive the God of the system controlling this world.

Should be say I'm not Iga but Koga? But would that help avoiding the problem? As I was seriously pondering these ridiculous thoughts—

The solution to the situation came from an unexpected source.

A while ago, in order to listen to the conversation between Argo and these ninja, I didn't stop at the entrance of this small valley but instead struggled to climb up the cliff. The reason was, this place wasn't in the middle of the town but a field. If one were to stand still in one place, sooner or later, one thing would surely happen.

As I slowly moved a step backward, he said in a low voice, "Behind you."

""Do you think we will fall for that trick-gozaru!?""

"There's no trick, just look behind you."

Something within his voice seemed to have moved the deep skepticism of the ninja. Kotarou and Isuke, who turned their faces around, made a slight jump at the same time.

That was because in front of their eyes and noses, a new intruder — no, an intruding-cow stood tall.

Its formal name was «Trembling Ox». The height to its shoulders would be about two and a half meters, it was a huge cow type monster, specialty of the second floor. While its toughness and attack power were just as expected from its appearance, what was troublesome was actually it's terribly long targeting range and duration, which made it very hard to switch targets mid-fight. Since he had already retreated to the ledge, there was no doubt that its target would be none other than those guys.

"Bumoooo—!"

The cow howled,

""Go-gozaruuuuu!""

After the screams of the ninja, the two players in ninja outfits started running at an amazing speed in the direction of the town. The cow also chased after them with an agility that did not match its huge body. It was only five seconds before the earth shook and the screams disappeared into the horizon. From the look of it, the chase would continue until Kotarou and Isuke entered Urbus.

"Are you okay nee-chan? Are you hurt?" Ainz asked as he hugged Argo.

Argo smiled and patted the boy affectionately and hugged him.

Her body was trembling but she felt safe now.

Kirito smiled at this.

"…You're too cooL, Ainz-bou."

That voice was, of course, from Argo who was staying silent until this moment. However, the tone of her voice was subtly different from the «Rat»'s usual slightly hateful tone—"But doesn't this mean Onee-san is breaking the first rule of being information dealeR?"

Those words provoked Kirito's curiosity, but the situation wasn't something to which he, a second-year middle school gamer until a month ago, who had zero intercommunication skill could make a correct reaction. He desperately thought while I was freezing, and somehow managed to push the words out of my mouth,

"…You owe me one anyway. I'll be troubled until you tell me the reason behind your whiskers."

On the face of the information dealer, Argo the «Rat», there were three lines of whiskers on each cheeks clearly drawn in black face paint. While those were the source of her Rat nickname, no one knew the reason behind why she drew them. And a terrible price tag of hundred thousands of Cor was attached to that information.

However, in the boss battle earlier, I took a «Beater» label to isolate myself from most of the former beta testers, single-handedly taking the hostility from the new players off the former testers including Argo. In order to express her gratitude, Argo sent a message saying that I could «Get any single information for free», to which I replied «Tell me the reason for your whiskers».

To my words that I used as a joke to divert the situation, Argo pressed her face harder on my back as she whispered,

"…OkaY, I'll tell you-ru. But you need to wait a bit while I take off the painT…"

Eh?

Paint… she means taking those whiskers off? Does she intend to show me the unpainted face which no one had seen before? Does it have some deep implication?

My social anxiety rose to a dangerous peak, before she could let go, I exclaimed,

"…Never mind, I want you to tell me something else instead! Tell me about the hidden skill on this floor that those guys were talking about!"

When Argo let go of Ainz and turned in front of Kirito, fortunately — if I should say so, the whiskers still clearly remained on her cheeks. Just before she let go of my back, I felt like I heard 'Kii-bou, you coward', or was it my imagination?

The «Rat», who had completely returned to her usual cheeky expression, said while folding her arms,

"I said I'll tell you any information, so I'll keep my promisE. But, Kii-bou also have to promise me one thinG. Regardless of the outcome, don't blame mE!"

"…Just now, you also said that to those ninja. But, what does that mean? For you to sell the information about an extra skill no one knows, wouldn't they feel grateful instead of a grudge…?" To his question, the Rat showed a broad grin.

"For that information, I'll need to collect the feE, Kii-bou."

Kirito leaked out a sigh as he nodded.

"Alright, I promise. I swear to the god… no, to the System-sama, that no matter what happens, I won't hold a grudge against you."

Whether the quest to acquire the extra skill could pose a risk to my life, I would have to judge it by myself. After hearing my oath, Argo gave a deep nod, Then "follow mE," before turning around.

For the path we took from there, Kirito felt it would be impossible to travel along without having bought a map beforehand, or having unlimited amounts of curiosity and endurance.

We climbed the cliff of the table mountains standing close together on the vast — the diameter shouldn't be different from the first floor — second floor, got into a small cave, and glided along the underground stream like it was a waterslide. We also went through three battles, but the enemies weren't difficult to us, who was leveling to the limit in order to defeat the first floor's boss. The total time of our traveling was about thirty minutes.

Judging by our position on the whole map, we had arrived at a place near the summit of an exceptionally high towering mountain on the southern edge of the second floor. That place was a small clearing surrounded by cliffs, with a spring and a lone tree, also — a small hut was built there.

"…Is it here?"

Argo nodded at my unnecessary question before walking to the hut without hesitation. It seemed there was still no danger at this stage. She then forcefully opened the door.

There was an NPC inside, along with some furniture. It was a big middle-aged man with a well built body, his head was a slick skinhead, and around his mouth was a thick beard. Over his head was a gold-colored [!] mark, indicating a quest starting point.

To Kirito's questioning gaze, Argo gave a nod again.

"This guy is the NPC giving the «Martial Arts» extra skilL. The information I can give is up until this point, accepting the quest or not, is Kii-bou and Ainz-bou's decisioN."

"…M-Martial arts?" it was a name that he had never heard during the beta period. Argo said 'This is on the housE,' before adding supplementary information.

"«Martial Arts» is a skill that allows attacking with bare hands… that is my speculation. It would be effective when the weapon is dropped, or its durability is at the limiT."

"O-Oh… then it would be useful, unlike «Meditation». In that case… I see, so that's why you got stuck with those ninja there…"

To Argo, who made a puzzled face, he also gave a 'On the house,' preface before giving an explanation.

"When speaking about ninja, normally you would imagine their weapons to be ninja katana and shuriken, but it was a bit different in game industry. Removing the head with a single bare hand attack. That has been the highest peak of ninja gaming style for a long time. So Kotarou and Isuke would want that martial arts skill in order to make their ninja being «Complete». —Hmm… wait a sec. They didn't know this place, then how did they know about the content of the martial arts skill and Argo knowing that information?"

"…This is double on the housE. Just before the end of the beta test, this information was revealed from an NPC on the seventh floor, regarding «The martial arts master on the second flooR». But I found it out myself long before thaT. Those ninja should have heard about it from the NPC on the seventh floor during the beta tesT. Then, ever since this official server launched, they have kept asking me to sell the information about the extra skill on the second flooR."

"T…Then, why don't you just say 'I don't know' at that time? So they wouldn't keep pestering you about the information like that…"

To his expected question, Argo made an awkward face as she said, "…That single 'I don't know' would destroy my pride as an information dealer."

"…So you chose to say 'I know but won't sell it', huh. Well… it's not like I can't understand your feelings…"

As he let out a sigh, he looked at the NPC set up in seated Zen meditation over a tatami-mat in the middle of the hut again.

"…And, the reason you won't sell is that the one who bought it would hold a grudge against you. But even saying so, don't you already have a lot of enemies due to your business…?" Kirito asked.

"People usually forget the grudge from having bought information just after three dayS! But this is differenT! Even if it turns out to be lame, you still have to keep it for your whole lifE…"

Watching small body of Argo trembling, I was lost for several seconds before giving a nod.

"I already knew I'd need to experience it by myself anyway. So it's fine, I promise. No matter what the outcome, I won't blame Argo."

I then walked into the hut and stood in front of the old man who was sitting in Zen meditation. The old man in a rugged dōgi looked at me before saying,

"Thou wishes to be a disciple?"

"…Yes."

"Even though there be a long and steep road of training?"

"I'm expecting no less."

After a short conversation, the [!] above the head of the old man changed into [?], the log in his vision indicated that the quest was accepted.

The old man, who became our master (as Ainz also decided to partake it) moved outside the hut, toward a huge rock at the edge of the garden, which was surrounded by cliffs. Its height was about two meters, with a diameter of about one and a half meters, the master lightly knocked it and spoke while he was stroking his beard with his left hand,

"Thine training is just one. Splitting this rock using only thy palms. Once thou have succeeded, I shall teach thee all my knowledge."

"…W-Wait a minute."

Kirito tapped lightly on the huge rock, feeling a little nervous about this unexpected development. Since he was accustomed to the game, his sense of touch could tell the degree of the target's durability. The hardness sensation that was transmitted to my hand was «One step short of Immortal Object».

Yeah, it's impossible.

I made that judgement and turned to the master to cancel the quest. However, before I could do so—

"Until this rock is split, leaving this mountain is forbidden. And thou hast to bear the mark for that reason."

The master who spitted out that line took strange objects from the bosom of his dōgi. On his left hand was a small pot. Then in his right hand was… a thick and elegant — writing brush.

Bad feeling, a word made up in a three-dimensional font floated over my head as the bad feeling pierced through my entire body.

E-Err, I want to quit!

Faster than he could say that, the right hand of the master flashed at an amazing speed. The tip of the brush plunged into the pot, a lot of ink then — Zubazubazuba—! exploded on their faces.

At that moment, this made me realize the secret behind Argo's whiskers.

Ainz was smiling.

"Look nee-chan! We match now, so does this mean we are a couple?" Ainz asked innocently.

Ainz marks were small and thin while Argo's was a bit more wider.

"Oh my god… you look so cute! You look like a bunny!" Argo said taking some screenshots, purely to resell and not at all for her own.

"O-Owaaaa!?"

Kirito raised a pathetic scream as he leaned back, and met with the gaze from Argo who was standing slightly further away.

The girl showed deep sorrow and sympathy — but at the same time, the expression on the Rat's face looked as if she was trying to suppress the urge to burst into laughter.

He hurriedly used both of his hands to wipe his face after the release of the brush attack. However, the ink seemed to be a super-fast drying type, as he couldn't get anything on his hands. The master looked at me like that before nodding, and spitting out the devastating words that he was anticipating,

"That «Mark» cannot be removed until thou hath split this rock and finished the training. I believe in thee, my disciple."

Then, he returned to the hut and disappeared behind the door.

Kirito stood still like that for about ten seconds, before gazing at Argo, who was still wearing a complicated expression, and asked,

"I see… Argo, you accepted this quest during the beta period… and gave up on clearing it, right? That's why you had to continue playing with that drawing on your face until the final day of the test. And as the result, it was the beginning of the «Rat» character, the information dealer, and for your business in the game's official version, you chose to continue using it with paint… is that correct?"

"Excellent! That's some excellent reasoninG!"

As she clapped her hands, the Rat continued,

"Isn't it greaT, Kii-bou! As a result, you gained the information of both «The reason behind the whiskers» and «The extra skilL»! For celebration, I'll tell you one more thinG. This rock… it's demoN!"

"…I thought as much…"

While he was bearing the urge to collapse to the ground, he bet on a single small ray of hope as he asked Argo,

"…Hey. Is the paint on my face similar to your whiskers?"

"Hmm, it's quite differenT—"

"Oh… h-how does it look!?"

Maybe it isn't too noticeable? Or if it's noticeable but is somewhat cool then I still have a choice of returning to my daily life while carrying this mark. Argo spent three seconds looking at my face, who didn't have enough courage to look at my own reflection from the spring — before saying,

"Oh righT. I can express it in one word… it's «KiriemoN»"

At that point, seeming as she had reached her limit, Argo fell to the ground, both feet wriggled while she rolled her body about, "Nyahahaha! Nya—hahahahaha!" she continued laughing uncontrollably soon joined by Ainz. Eternally, eternally…Kirito secluded himself on the mountain for three days, by then, he managed to split the rock after a tremendous amount of struggle. It was fortunate that he had promised not to hold a lifelong grudge against Argo.

 **At the pub at the present**

"-and that's basically why you haven't seen us for a while in this floor" Ainz explained Asuna who was just about to take a drink of Ale.

Thankfully she hadn't taken a sip and thus avoided doing something so cliché as spit-taking.


	7. Chapter 7

Sword Art Overline

Authors note: There is a poll on my profile for a future chapter design, please vote and please share my story.

Chapter 07: B/W Concerto

The first floor of Aincrad was an "anything goes" floor, with no unifying design theme. The terrain was rich and varied, with fields, forests, wastelands, and canyons, not to mention numerous smaller towns and villages outside the main city. It added up to a welcoming atmosphere for new players, but now that the game was deadly, few people were in the mood to soak in the surroundings.

The second floor, however, had a very clear, unified design. The land was covered with green grazing fields and multilayered flat-topped mountains, and the monsters within were all animal types. As a nod to the effort of beating the first floor, the wilderness of the second was not very difficult, which, combined with the visual style, gave it a laid-back, "pastoral" theme. Most players called it the "cow floor," for obvious reasons.

Next up was the unconquered third floor.

As Kirito and Ainz climbed the spiral staircase from the second-floor boss chamber to the third-floor town, Kirito clenched his fist and muttered, "In a way, this is where SAO really starts..."

It was meant more as a reminder to himself, but his female companion heard him and asked, "Really? Why is that?"

He scratched his head and explained, "Well...the third floor is where human mobs first show up. The kobolds and tauruses from below were demi humans, so they could use simple sword skills, but they were still monsters, right? Well, some of the enemies ahead look indistinguishable from other players. You honestly wouldn't be able to tell them apart without a color cursor. Just like NPCs, they can talk and use expert sword skills. Meaning..."

He looked over his shoulder and fixed Asuna the fencer with a look. "This is where the real Sword Art Online begins. I read plenty of magazine interviews and articles on Akihiko Kayaba, the man who trapped us in here. He said that the term Sword Art refers to the light and sound of the clash of sword skill on sword skill–a concerto of life and death."

Ainz suddenly jerked a bit, wait, wouldn't that mean...

"...Oh..."

The phrase that had given Kirito shivers of excitement a year ago did not have any noticeable effect on Asuna. We continued walking up the stairs at a measured pace. Her next comment took him by surprise.

"Does that mean he was already plotting this crime when he gave that interview?"

Ainz turned to Asuna, it seems she also caught into it as well.

"Umm...well, I guess it does."

On that fateful day five weeks ago, Kayaba summoned all the players of SAO into the center square of the Town of Beginnings and announced, "I created the NerveGear and SAO precisely in order to build this world and observe it. I have now achieved that aim."

If those words were true, then from the very first line Kayaba ever drew on a NerveGear diagram, he'd been envisioning this terrible crime as his ultimate goal. All of his statements that thrilled Kirito's young mind (well, only a year younger) now held a terrible double meaning.

Asuna quietly murmured, "A concerto...of life and death. I wonder if he really meant that to refer to the sword art of player against humanoid enemies."

"Huh...? What do you mean?"

It was Kirito's turn to be confused. He'd climbed up identical sets of spiraling staircases to the next floor nearly a dozen times between the beta and the full release, so it was familiar enough that he could continue to climb while facing backward.

The only thing that differed between floors was the style of carvings on the blackened walls. A closer look always revealed some kind of thematic hint at the next floors contents, but he was concentrating on Asuna's words at the moment.

Her face serious, she whispered, "Maybe I'm overthinking this...but a concerto isn't a performance where instruments form a pair to play against each other. That would be a duet."

"So what exactly is a concerto, then?"

"The definition changes depending on the era, but at its most basic, it's an orchestra acting as the background accompaniment to a soloist or small group of independent players. So it's not one- on-one, but one-on-many, or few-on-many." Ainz explained.

"One...against many..." Kirito repeated and stopped himself before he asked if it could mean a player against a group of monsters.

It was almost never the case that a single player faced off against a large collection of foes–say, ten or more. Without any magic spells that could attack a large area at once, and the closest sword skills merely adding a foot or two to the weapon's reach, Ainz huge Odachi being the sole exception, being surrounded by monsters in SAO meant certain death.

That ironclad law was reflected in the game's design, so nearly all monsters were solitary, or in groups no larger than three or four. As long as you didn't run around intentionally drawing attention or hitting alarm traps, a single player would never encounter a large mass of enemies. Even if it happened, no one would be foolish enough to stand and fight.

"In that case, there's no battle in this world that actually corresponds to a real concerto. If anything, it might refer to a boss battle...but in that case, the boss would be the lead, and the players, the accompaniment," he said with a wry chuckle. Asuna opened her mouth to respond, then shut it. After a brief pause, she grinned slightly.

"I suppose so. I'm just overthinking this. More importantly, Kirito..."

"Huh? What?"

"Never mind, too late."

As soon as she said those words, the back of his head slammed against the thick stone door at the top of the stairs.

"Nguh!" he groaned pitifully and lost his balance, hands waving wildly. He made sure to fall backward, sensing it would still be better than flopping forward and directly onto Asuna.

But in that brief instant, the stone door that should have propped my back up had already opened, and he fell shrieking through the doorway to land directly on his butt atop the mossy paving stones–the momentous first step into the new, uncharted floor.

"Lame way to open the 3rd floor nii-san" Ainz said with mirth in his eyes.

The third floor of Aincrad.

Its design theme was "forest," but this was forest on a scale unlike the woods around Horunka on the first floor, or the southern area of the second floor. Even the smallest tree here had a trunk at least three feet across and towered nearly a hundred feet in the air. These vast, ancient trees stretched as far as the eye could see, and the golden beams of light that trickled through their endless branches and leaves was a magical sight.

"Wow!" Asuna marveled, walking right past him as he writhed and clutched his tailbone. He spun around halfway on his rear end to take in the sight. She stopped ahead and spun around in the narrow band of light, drinking in the panorama of thick, endless forest.

"Incredible...Just this sight was worth all of the trouble to get here!"

The hood of her familiar wool cape was pulled back, so the glint of light reflecting off her long brown hair caught his eye. With her slender build and elegant beauty, Asuna looked more like a frolicking forest dryad than a human player.

"...Yeah. It really was," he murmured and got to his feet. He straightened his leather coat and stretched. Even the air seemed to be sweeter and moister here, full of rich phytoncides...he could imagine.

He turned back to see that we'd just walked out of an ancient stone structure built into the roots of a particularly huge tree, the mouth of the staircase yawning and black. Within twenty minutes, the other frontline players would be wrapping up their tasks and coming out of this exit.

"And now," he murmured, opening his window and starting up an instant message to Argo the Rat. He told the information dealer that she should inform the public that the second floor had been conquered, and the teleport gate to the third floor would be open within an hour. She'd been present in the boss chamber but had disappeared before the fight was over, so this was just in case.

The task set to him by Lind, leader of the raid party, was complete. He closed the window and took another look around the forest.

He wanted to stand around and enjoy the feeling of satisfaction at reaching the third floor, but time was of the essence. Like any other new floor, there was shopping to be done, quests to undertake, and levels to gain. But before any of that, he had to confirm something with my temporary party member.

He steeled myself for the task, sidled up to Asuna as she continued to soak in the scenery, and coughed politely.

"Um, I hate to interrupt your leisure..."

"...What is it?"

She turned to me, a rare smile on her face. I drew her gaze north with the point of my index finger. A stone path leading away from the structure behind us split into a Y-intersection just twenty yards ahead.

"If we turn right up there, it goes to the main city. The left side takes us through the forest for a while, and eventually to the next town."

"...I see."

"Normally, we ought to go to the city and activate the portal, but I'd prefer to leave that up to Lind and Kibaou's teams, since they'll be coming right up after us."

"….I see."

"Part of it is because I don't want the attention, but the other part is that there's a task we can take care of if we go down the left path. I realize both of those reasons are my own personal rationale, so..."

The grin on her face began to fade. In fact, there was a threatening glare forming in her eyes. It finally dawned on him that if he chose his words poorly here, he would be earning himself the full and mighty wrath of one of Asuna's bad moods– Ainz making gestures of danger and warning kinda helped a lot to figure out the situation. He just didn't know the rules of how to avoid that. He prayed that the RNG would roll on his side for once for this encounter.

"...And?" she prompted, her voice cool.

"Um...well...we do need to restock on supplies, so if you wanted to just go straight to the main city, I suppose we'd have to break up our party here...But of course, if you wanted to join me in tackling this quest in the forest, I wouldn't try to convince you to reconsider..."

"If you're asking me if I don't want to break up the party, then no, I have no problem with that. Were both solo players, unless I'm sorely mistaken?"

"Y-yes, ma'am."

"But this errand you're talking about is best if taken care of first, I assume? In that case, I'll join you–I hate being inefficient. Of course, if you'd rather kick me out of the party so you can reap the benefits all to yourself, I suppose I can't stop you."

"N-no, no, I don't want to be selfish at all. Besides, it'll be more efficient for us as a group."

"Then let's get going. I won't need to restock and repair for a little while yet."

"G-great."

She turned on her heel and strode off down the path, her boots clicking on the stones. Kirito hurried after her, inwardly deciding that he'd just barely slid in safe, though he had no idea what he was safe from exactly. It also helped that Ainz gave a grin to me and a thumbs up.

If he'd known it would come to this, he would have talked to the girls in class more often, he silently rued, then snorted in denial. If he was playing a middle schooler with that kind of character build, he wouldn't have been ready to log in to the retail version of SAO five seconds after the servers went online, and he'd never be walking through this fantastical forest with this fickle fencer and the genius kid in the first place. It was a pointless conjecture.

Speaking of which…

In the month that he'd been trapped in this castle, he'd been hell-bent on survival, on powering himself up through whatever means he could find. Had he ever even stopped to regret his decision to jump into Sword Art Online?

Regret would be the normal choice. Anyone who didn't regret getting stuck in here was insane. But no matter how far back he scrolled through his emotional event log, despite the presence of terror or homesickness, there were no hits for "regret."

So either he was insane, or the circumstances never gave him enough breathing room to even consider regretting his choice. If it was the latter, then the fencer strolling along ahead of me was part of those circumstances. He'd spent so much time catering to her whims and needs that perhaps regret and other negative emotions simply couldn't find any purchase in my brain…not to mention Ainz making him talk more about himself and be slightly more open.

No, don't you dare start to thank her! She's torn you a new one ten times more often than she's ever shown any gratitude! At least Ainz was nice enough to thank him and share rewards equitably and was polite.

He picked up his pace to draw even with his casual partner.

Based on his beta experience, he knew that for the thirty minutes or so between the previous floor's boss's being slain and the teleport gate being activated, the spawn rate of monsters was drastically decreased.

He suspected that it was a gift to those weary champions, to ensure that they didn't get wiped out by mobs before they could reach the gate of the next floor's main town. Sadly, that effect was only active around the town itself.

After five minutes of walking through the forest, he sensed a shift in the surrounding air, even before his Search skill went off. The beautiful, fairy-tale forest seemed to grow harder and more menacing with every step, Ainz had his hand at the ready in his sword's handle

"Listen up, Asuna, Ainz. The enemies here aren't any tougher than the ones on the second floor. They're mostly animals and plants, too, so they won't use sword skills on us," he explained. She nodded silently as Ainz looked around to make sure no ambushes would occur.

"But there's one pattern all the mobs here employ: They're going to try to draw us into the forest and away from the path during battle. If you charge forward every time they give you an opening, you'll be totally lost by the time you win the fight."

"Can't you just open your map and see the places that you've walked already?" Asuna asked.

"The thing is..." Kirito waved his right hand to open the menu, flipped to the map, and enabled visible mode to show it to Asuna.

"Oh...It's all dim," she remarked. Indeed, while normally most of the map would be grayed out with clear little 3-D models of where we'd already been, the current map screen was dim and hazy, as if obscured by mist. Even squinting closely at it did not reveal the location of the path.

"This area has a name: the Forest of Wavering Mists. The map's hard to read, and occasionally you walk into mist so thick, you can barely see a thing. So the ironclad rule around here is, don't leave the path or your party. Keep that in mind at all times."

"Understood. So why don't you give me a demonstration?"

"Huh?"

"Something's watching us back there." Ainz explained as he tensed his body ready to attack should it be necessary.

Kirito slowly turned around. Off the path, at the very lip of the woods, stood–no, grew–a thin, withered tree. Its pale yellow trunk was only a foot and a half thick and six feet tall, far smaller than the behemoth specimens all around. But pale lights shone in two small knotholes in the bark, and the branches stretching out to the sides waved like slender claws.

The dried-out tree and himself stared at each other for several seconds. Eventually it pulled a creaking root out of the ground and stepped forward. Next, the left root pulled out for a step, and it began to walk toward him. The wobbling steps soon turned to a full-speed dash. A third knothole opened beneath the other two, and the tree warbled a howl.

"Molooo!"

The Treant Sapling had several special abilities, one of which was that when it stood perfectly still, it wouldn't set off the Search skill. He was so absorbed in his explanation that he must have walked right past it.

Constant vigilance! He admonished himself, reaching over his shoulder to pull his beloved Anneal Blade +6 from its sheath.

Three minutes later, he'd cut off both of the arm branches, and Asuna had penetrated its mouth knothole with her Wind Fleuret +5. And Ainz had cut deeply into its trunk with his own Anneal blade.

The treant moaned sadly and exploded into polygonal shards.

We fist-bumped in celebration and put away our swords. Despite his warning, he'd fallen for the tree's deceptive flipping of its front and rear sides, and wandered five yards into the forest.

That wasn't a big problem now, but when the mists were out, even ten yards' distance could be disastrous.

As she walked down the old stone path, Asuna said, "I feel a bit...guilty about that."

"Oh?"

"Well, that tree monster was a sapling, right? It's not very eco- friendly to cut it down like that."

"M-maybe, but you wouldn't be saying that if you saw the Elder Treant that he'd grow into. You'd be saying we gotta chop that sucker down now while we got the chance!"

"Ne… Nee-chan, you got your priorities mixed in here, we are in a virtual world so there is no need to worry, the is no exchange of CO2 to O2 to worry" Ainz said as his eye twitched.

We returned to the path and shared a short sigh of relief. The angle of the golden light from overhead was changing already, but we had plenty of time until nightfall.

"So, it should be right around here..."

"What is? Oh, that task you said you wanted to take care of."

"Yes. We're just initiating a quest...but the starting location of the NPC is a bit random. How are your ears, Asuna?"

He gave her a glance and saw that the fencer was backing away, holding her hands over her cute little pink ears.

"...Is that what you're into, Kirito? You have an ear thing?"

"N-n-no! I was referring to your hearing, not the shape of your ears..."

Ainz then stared at Kirito intently.

"I'm just kidding. Besides, this situation has nothing to do with our hearing. We're listening with our brains, not our eardrums."

"Ah, good point. Well, let's try to find it. If only one of us had the Eavesdropping skill." he straightened his back and cupped his palms behind his ears, knowing it was probably pointless. Asuna followed his example.

"So what sound am I listening for? Don't tell me it's a single leaf falling."

"Don't worry, it's not a natural sound. We're trying to find the clanging of sword on sword."

Asuna looked startled for a moment, then nodded her understanding.

We stood in the middle of the path, our backs pressed together, focusing in all four directions with four ears. He often ignored them, but there was actually quite a lot of atmospheric noise in the game. The whistling of the breeze and rustling of leaves, scampering critters and chirping songbirds–he shut each and every one of those sounds out of his mind, searching for the harsh, artificial clang of metal on metal.

"...!"

Asuna and Kirito twitched together. He turned to his right, and Asuna to her left...to the southwest. There was a faint but distinct clashing of blades coming from that direction.

"Let's go," he said, striding forward. Asuna pulled his coat from behind.

"Is it safe to go into the forest?"

"Don't worry, as long as we start the quest safely, we'll be able to return to the path."

"...And what if we don't?"

"Not a problem–I have a camping set. Let's go!"

As he trotted off into the woods, he heard a skeptical "Camping?" It quickly turned to footsteps.

Away from the stone path, the ground was soft and mossy, with just enough give to be noticeable, but not uncomfortable to walk on.

"The sounds are getting closer we should be very near the origin of the sounds" Ainz said as he was looking around just in case.

After less than five minutes of jogging, the clanging of metal was much louder than before, joined by shouts and screams. Two NPC cursors appeared directly ahead, followed by the flashes of colliding swords peeking through the branches.

One more massive tree trunk, and we'd be at the battleground. Kirito stopped before we rounded the tree and held Asuna back with an outstretched arm, holding up my index finger in a shushing motion. We leaned around the trunk to peer at the same time.

Two silhouettes were locked in fierce combat in the middle of a wide clearing.

One was a tall man wearing gleaming metal armor of gold and green. Even at a glance, it was clear that his longsword and buckler were high-level equipment. His long, platinum blond hair was tied at the back, and his face was that of a dashing Scandinavian lead actor in a Hollywood film.

The other combatant stood out in stark relief, with black-and- purple armor. The curved saber and small kite shield were dark in color but equally powerful. The fighter's hair was short and smoky purple, which combined with darkly tanned skin, was strikingly beautiful. Luscious red lips and a swelling curve on the breastplate made it clear that the dark fighter was a woman.

"Haah!"

The blond man let out a fierce roar and swung down his sword.

"Shaa!"

The purple-haired woman struck back with her saber. A fierce clang echoed throughout the clearing, and the flashing light effect lit the deep forest for an instant.

"A-are those...really NPCs...?" Asuna murmured below him, her voice filled with wonder.

Ainz looked at the NPCs with his skill.

Their code was beautiful and the AI was near perfect, a few discrepancies but as it was not perfect. Still they had enough programing to be able to fool a regular person. The data mimicked how human would act. Could it be that the emotional data was being used to create AI and this was a test on it?

A Turing test for the AIs

He understood how she felt. Their precise movements and realistic expressions were so life-like, it was hard to see them as soulless avatars under the control of the game system. But…

"Technically, they're classified as mobs. Look at their ears."

"Huh...? Oh! They're both pointy. Which means..."

"The man is a forest elf. The woman is a dark elf. Look above their heads."

Asuna's eyes traveled up a bit. She murmured in surprise again.

Both warriors had a golden ! mark above their heads. That was proof that they were quest-initiating NPCs. Normally, walking up and starting a conversation would automatically open up a quest log. But in this case…

"What does it mean that they both have quest marks and are fighting each other...?"

"I think you need to pick a side" Ainz guessed.

"Ainz got it in one–you can only accept one. I need you to make a very important choice here, Asuna," he said. She took her eyes off the elves and looked at him.

"A choice?"

"Yeah. The quest they'll give us isn't a one-off quest, or even a series of quests. It's the first major campaign quest in the game. It lasts through several floors and won't wrap up until we get to the ninth."

"N–"

Ninth?! she was going to scream, but clamped her mouth shut in time. Her hazelnut-brown eyes were wide with shock. Secretly enjoying her surprise, he added another bombshell.

"And if you screw up along the way, there are no do-overs. No switching to the opposing side, either. The choice you make here is going to last us until the ninth floor of Aincrad."

"Excuse me...Couldn't you have told me this earlier...?" Her face went from anger to indecision. "Wait, opposing side? Does that mean those two elves...?"

"Exactly. We have to choose one to save and one to fight. Which one will it be: black or white?"

Asuna gave me a scorchingly appraising look. "This isn't a real choice, is it? Maybe if this was a regular game, but not now. We have to follow the same route you took in the beta. In fact...I'm positive that I can guess exactly which one you chose."

Now it was his turn to clam up uncomfortably. Her cold gaze bored into my face, and she spoke with absolute conviction.

"Yeah… knowing Kirito it had to be **that** one" Ainz said nodding sagely.

Asuna and Ainz looked at each other and smirked as they said in unison.

"You chose the dark elf lady, didn't you?"

"Y-yes, I did...b-but not because she was a lady. Because she was dark."

But he knew that excuse wouldn't fly. Asuna stood up straight and turned away in a huff.

"Well, fine. I would never take the side of a man to cut down a woman, anyway. Let's help out the dark elf and defeat the forest elf. Agreed?" She hurried to pop out of our hiding spot, but he grabbed the back of her hood first.

"W-wait, wait, wait. One important thing first!"

"What?"

"Well, um...Just so you know, even if we help the dark side, there's no way we can beat the forest elf."

"Wh...what?!"

Her eyes went wide. He put a hand on her slender shoulder to calm her down.

"As you can probably tell from the tough-looking gear, they're both elite mobs. You don't find Forest Elven Hallowed Knights or Dark Elven Royal Guards until the seventh floor. No matter how much of a safety margin we're working with, we only just made it to the third floor. We can't win."

"Then...what do we do? I mean...if we die in this fight..."

"Don't worry, there's no death if we lose. Once we're down half our HP, the fighter we're helping will use their secret attack to win. We just have to keep focused on defense. Don't panic when he starts chopping our HP away, just stay calm and wait for the lady to do her thing. Losing control and running around is the worst thing that can happen here–you never know when you might pull in a nearby mob by accident."

"...All right."

"Good." he patted her shoulder and let go.

"Then we'll jump out on the count of three. The quest starts automatically when we get near, so just stay next to me."

She nodded in understanding, and he lined up next to her, counted to three, and said a silent was one thing he hadn't told Asuna. When we jumped in to save the dark elf–her name was Kizmel–she would unleash her forbidden art to save us from the forest elf knight, dying in the process. If we chose the opposite route and helped the forest elf, he would do the same thing. No matter the choice, both elves would die in this clearing, and we'd be embroiled in the war of the two races. That was the start of a long, long campaign...an epic tale.

"This ending… I can't allow it" Ainz muttered to himself.

He read the data of them and they both had a 'death flag' on their characters.

It was a sad thing and made Ainz hate Kayaba even more.

It would be one thing if it was a dumb AI, like the ones of the NPCs in the first few floors or the monsters, but an AI that could manage to replicate near perfect human emotion and able to move so fluidly? That was a crime to him.

They had to choose a side, like in a game of chess, black or white?

"I am sorry" Ainz muttered to himself, referido to the forest elf.

"...Two, one, go!"

We leaped out into the clearing. The battling elves looked at us momentarily, then jumped backward to keep distance between them. Each of the ! marks turned into a ? to indicate a quest in progress.

"What is humankind doing in this forest?" the male elf demanded.

"Do not interfere! Begone from this place!" ordered the dark elf.

We had the option of leaving, of course. But that was beside the point of being here. Asuna, Ainz and Kirito made eye contact, drew our swords–and leveled the points at the gaudy forest elf's chest.

His handsome features grew cold and furious. The yellow event-related mob cursor gained a blinking red border, a warning that the target was about to turn aggressive.

"You fools...For the crime of siding with this dark elf scum, your blood will quench my sword's thirst."

"That–"

"That's right, but it's you who will perish, you wife-abusing pig!" Asuna retorted, stealing my one-liner and adding a dubious charge of domestic abuse.

"Uhmmm, nee-chan the two elves…" Ainz wanted to explain but Kirito held his shoulder and shook his head.

The forest elf's cursor shifted from pale yellow to a menacing dark crimson. Before Kirito could even note the foreboding tint of red, the man put on a beautiful but haughty smile.

"So be it! I will start with you, humans."

"Remember, just focus on defense!" Kirito called out to Asuna and Ainz, focusing on his longsword.

Of course, we'll only last three minutes at best, he silently added. But when he glanced over at his partner's face, he felt a distinct sense of unease. Even in the short time he'd known her, he could recognize the expression she was wearing now: the one that said she was dead set on something.

"Um...focus...defense?"

"I know, I know!" she snapped, but there was a ferocious glint to the rapier clutched in her right hand.

"Yeah… that's not happening, I will try to keep nee-chan company, keep an eye out ok?"

And so Asuna the fencer and Ainz the speedy demon hare shot out to attack the elite mob with a furious war cry.

 **Twenty minutes later.**

"This...can't be happening..." the forest elf muttered as he collapsed to the ground.

"This...can't be happening..." Kirito repeated, blinking in surprise as he checked to confirm that the mob's HP bar did indeed read zero. In contrast, Asuna, Ainz and their own HP bars were at half, just before we would reach the yellow zone. During the beta, he'd been in a party of four, and they'd been thrashed in just two minutes.

"...Well. He wasn't so tough, after all."

He looked over to see Asuna, back straight despite her obvious fatigue. A few feet to her left was the dark elf, dark saber and gaze pointed right at the fallen foe.

Ya shoulda died, missy, echoed a mysterious, unsourced phrase inside his head. Kizmel the dark elf knight looked up at me.

Her onyx eyes seemed to be filled with shock, bewilderment, and an unanswered question of what she should do next. But that had to be his imagination. He prayed it was my imagination.

He did not even begun to understand that it was all due to Ainz manipulating the system in a more pervasive way. He did not want Kayaba to lead this score… this story was not his, it was theirs now.

If this quest, the "Jade Key," had developed as it happened in the beta, the following should have occurred.

Whether we allied with the forest elf or the dark elf, ultimately both would, end up dead. The elf we sided with would remain alive for a few seconds extra, long enough to say, "Deliver this key to such and such," before perishing. The such and such being either the forest elf base on the north end of the woods or the dark elf base to the south. Once the bodies had vanished, a small bag of sewn leaves would be left behind, containing a large and beautiful key carved of green stone.

At that point, of course, the player was to take the key to the northern or southern camp; they could sell it at an NPC shop if they wished, but that would permanently prevent them from finishing the quest. If properly delivered without falling into temptation, the commander at the elf base would part with a special reward and the initiation of the next quest.

But he had no idea there was a different branching pathway in the quest, one in which the elf ally survived the battle. If he didn't know it, no one else did–even Argo. We had to expect a totally new and unfamiliar story ahead.

A short distance away from him, Asuna, and the still-silent dark elf Kizmel, the forest elf's body disappeared with a brief crackle. We received considerable amounts of experience and Col, along with a couple rare items, but he didn't have time to check that now.

A familiar bag of leaves was lying on the ground where the forest elf's body had been. Abandoned items had to be claimed soon, before they disappeared into thin air, but he wasn't even sure if he was supposed to pick this one up. What if he touched it, and that was the trigger that turned Kizmel hostile?

"Umm...gee, what's this?" he said unconvincingly. Asuna bent down to pick up the key as though nothing was out of the ordinary, so he hastily grabbed the hood of her cape, which earned me a furious glare. Finally, Kizmel reacted.

She bent over and cradled the bag carefully in her black leather gloves. An exhalation of relief left her lips as she held it to her chest.

"...At least we can protect the sanctuary now," she murmured to herself, put the bag in her waist pouch, and stood up to face us. The subtle way the ferocity returned to her eyes despite her wavering hesitation didn't seem possible for a mere simple system- controlled object.

"I must thank you," she said, her armor clanking as she bowed in salute. "The first secret key has been protected. Your assistance is appreciated. Come with me to our base, and the commander will wish to reward you for your help."

Again, a ? appeared over her head to indicate quest progress.

Kirito was inwardly relieved, though he did his best not to show it. It seemed that the quest would proceed as normal, even after we beat the forest elf ourselves.

However, his original plan was to butt into their fight, let both elves perish, get the key, and return to the main town. We hadn't taken a break to refresh and resupply since beating the second- floor boss. The elation at reaching a new floor was masking his fatigue, but exhaustion here was mental rather than physical and hit the player like a ton of bricks out of nowhere. His current partner Asuna had passed out from extreme exhaustion right after our first meeting down in the first-floor labyrinth. While it was rare to get that far, lapses of concentration led to mistakes, and controlling that fatigue safely was a vital tool for any solo player.

He peered sidelong at the fencer. She took a step forward without a glance at me, however it was Ainz who spoke to Kizmel himself.

"In that case, we'd be honored." Ainz said with a smile.

Kirito wasn't the only one who held his tongue. Kizmel stared at Ainz in silence. NPCs in Aincrad–technically, the dark elf Kizmel was classified as a mob–did not respond to player comments unless they came in a clear yes or no form.

He coughed awkwardly, ready to give a simpler answer, but before he could get the words out of my mouth, the knight nodded and spun around.

"Very well. The base camp is through the south end of the woods."

Ainz notice it.

The AI was adapting, not only combat wise but in social interactions. This quest was a disguise for a tuning test.

Their quest log updated, and the ? over her head vanished. At the same time, a message appeared to the upper left indicating that a third party member had joined, and a fresh new HP bar was added to the list.

Kizmel strode off coolly, and Asuna sprang after her. He stood rooted to the spot for three seconds before hurrying off to catch up.

The elf must have picked up an affirmative nuance from Ainz's reply. But as far as he knew, the NPCs in the beta test had nowhere near that kind of conversation ability.

Perhaps it was as simple as the NPCs' response database being expanded between the end of the beta and the start of the retail game. But something about Kizmel's speech and expressions felt too natural for that to explain it. She was just like any other I walked at the rear of the three-man team, examining her color cursor just to be sure. It was the yellow of an NPC–technically, an event mob–and her name was listed as KIZMEL: DARK ELVEN ROYAL GUARD. Players weren't allowed to replicate monster titles within their names, so this was proof that Kizmel was indeed nothing more than a moving object controlled by the system. If SAO was a normally functioning game, there might be a faint chance that she was actually being played by a member of the game staff, but that couldn't be true now that it was deadly.

...It must be his imagination.

He sped up to draw even with the two women.

Being an overpowered beater might have created a dangerously unpredictable set of circumstances in this case, but there was one way in which it was a definite improvement.

Reaching the dark elf base required venturing off the path and through the woods, increasing the chances of enemy encounters. And given the thick, obscuring mists that gave the forest its name, it was all too easy to lose sight of one's location.

But Kizmel served us valuably in more ways than one: Her saber made quick work of any foes who happened across our path, and as an elf, she seemed to know exactly which way to go through the heavy mist. As an admirer of efficiency, Kirito considered taking this opportunity to wander around and fight more mobs with Kizmel, but he thought better of it. He didn't want to give the proud, elite elf warrior a reason to be angry with him.

So it only took fifteen minutes of hiking through the misty forest to reach the sight of many black flags rippling in the breeze.

"That didn't take very long," Asuna said next to me, and he had to reluctantly agree.

Kizmel stopped marching and turned around to face us. She spoke with what he thought was a note of pride in her voice.

"A Forest-Sinking charm has been cast on the camp. You would not have found it so easily without me."

"Ooh, a charm? Is that like magic? I thought there wasn't any magic in this world," Asuna boldly remarked. Kirito felt a chill run down my back. Aside from her overly informal tone, he wasn't sure if what Asuna said was even understandable to the NPC and her preset array of responses. It felt like Kizmel might not be able to answer it, even if she understood the meaning.

The reason magic didn't exist in SAO was to allow the player to experience melee combat firsthand in the VRMMO environment–they didn't want to turn it into a long-distance shooter.

"Listen, Asuna, that's not..." he started, trying to help Kizmel out by explaining the concept. But once again, his consideration was totally unnecessary.

"...Our charms are not up to the level of magic," the dark elf said, her long eyelashes low. "If anything, they are just a faint afterglow of the great magic of old. When we were cut free from the earth, the people of Lyusula lost all magic..."

The shock of what she'd said hit him five seconds later–that was as long as it took to actually process what she'd said.

We lost all magic because we were cut free from the earth.

He had a feeling that she wasn't just giving an explanation of why magic skills didn't exist in Sword Art Online. This might be something that corresponded directly to the existence of the floating castle, Aincrad.

Now that he thought about it, he'd never had any exposure to the background story of SAO.

He had tore through countless articles and interviews after the game was first announced, but nothing more was said about the setting other than that it was a floating castle in the sky made of a hundred floors with their own little world maps. This was strange, because whether single player or multiplayer, the background story of an RPG, of how the world came to be, was usually just as important as the concrete game system itself.

Even in the beta test, the background of the world was opaque. He completed this campaign quest back then, but he recalled the story being rather simple and unconnected to the origins of Aincrad–the forest elves and dark elves were fighting over some holy "sanctuary," whatever that actually was.

When the retail game launched and promptly trapped all of its guests inside, he felt like he understood why the background of SAO was such a blank slate.

The lack of story, of any kind of descriptive background, was a challenge from the developer himself. Kayaba was telling us, The stage is set; it's up to you to create the story now.

That was just his imagination talking, of course, but it didn't seem very farfetched at this point. In that case, the words of Kizmel the elf knight–as an extension of the SAO system–surpassed even Kayaba's intentions.

While it was certainly true, what he did not know is that Kayaba had scripted certain scenarios to play in a certain way. It was due to Ainz's ability, technokinesis (technopath) that he had overruled him in that aspect, and by doing so had made the system change to fit the new narrative created by Ainz's defiance to Kayaba's will.

He was possessed by an urge to overwhelm the elven knight with questions as we walked. Whether this "Lyusula" was a continent, a kingdom, or a city. Why the dark elves were torn from their home. Why they were trapped here in this floating castle. What this castle really was, and why it had been built.

Most likely, none of that information had any bearing on our primary goal: beating the game and returning to reality.

The only reason he had started this campaign quest was for the plentiful experience points and high-level rewards.

There was no emotional attachment to the dark elf forces. If Asuna had insisted, he would have sided with the forest elf man against Kizmel earlier.

He stifled his sudden burst of curiosity with a deep breath and continued his silent march behind the knight.

As we approached the swirling black flags, the mists suddenly cleared away as though they'd never been there, and his field of vision returned.

We were very close to the southern end of the forest; sharp-cut rock walls extended left and right. A narrow passage barely fifteen feet wide proceeded through the rock, slim pillars on either side. Atop the poles flew the landmark black flags, adorned with crests of horns and blades.

Standing before the two poles were dark elf soldiers, proudly bearing glaives and wearing heavier armor than Kizmel's–though still light compared to the variety available to players. Our companion strode up to the guards.

When he did this quest in the beta, Kizmel had perished against the forest elf, and our party of four had to approach these guards without a go-between. But it was this situation that had him more nervous. Asuna leaned over and whispered, "I might as well ask...Were not going to have to fight in this base camp, are we?"

"We won't...We shouldn't. As long as we don't attack any of them, at least. Or maybe they just cancel your progress and kick you out..."

"You'd better not attempt to find out." She glared at him, then summoned her courage and picked up the pace.

Fortunately, the guards did nothing worse, than glare suspiciously as we passed them. After a short walk through the narrow passage, it opened wide into a round space a good fifty yards across. About twenty tents of black and purple in various sizes filled the space as glamorous dark elves strode about the grounds–all in all, an impressive sight.

"Wow...the camp's a lot bigger than it was in the beta," he murmured, quiet enough so Kizmel couldn't hear. Asuna looked at me doubtfully.

"Was it in a different place before?" Ainz asked with curiosity.

"Yeah, but that's not a strange thing. Most of these locations related to the campaign are temporary instances."

"Inse...tanse?" Asuna had brushed up furiously on her gaming lingo in the last month, but this term was unfamiliar. Ainz explained as we walked toward the largest tent in the back of the canyon.

"It's a location that's created temporarily for each party taking on the quest, I guess you could say. See, were going to talk to the dark elf leader to advance the quest, but if another party comes along, that makes it complicated, doesn't it? Some quests are like the 'Herbs of the Forest' quest on the first floor, and they just shut off the area from general access if someone's talking to the NPC."

"So...you're saying that you, Kirito and I have temporarily vanished from the third-floor map to move to this base?"

"That's about right," Ainz said, impressed by the speed of her understanding.

She narrowed her eyes and gave Kirito a searing look.

"We can leave anytime, right?"

The proceedings had been rather irregular, but the meeting with the commander of the dark elf advance forces went smoothly. Of course, being presumably stronger than Kizmel, the commander could have slaughtered us in seconds if anything went wrong.

He was delighted at the safe return of Kizmel and the Jade Key, granting us considerable rewards and equipment. Even better, we had our choice of several items. The saber decorated like Kizmel's sword drew my eye, but my Anneal Blade +6 was stronger, so I settled on a ring that added a point to strength. Asuna made a similar decision, choosing an earring with +1 to agility.

Ainz got himself a earring with a +1 to Agility as well. It seemed he was sticking to the AGI build for a bit.

The commander finished by initiating a new quest, the second leg of the campaign, and Asuna, Ainz and himself left the tent.

Back in the grassy canyon, the ceiling formed by the floor above that acted as our sky was turning the color of sunset. It had to be close to five o'clock. Now that his nerves had eased, fatigue was thudding down. It was time to rest for the day.

Kizmel stretched in a realistically natural way and turned to us, a hint of a smile on her lips.

"Warriors of humankind, allow me to thank you again for your help. I hope that you will assist in our next operation."

"W-we'd be happy to help."

"Now that I think on it, I have not heard your names yet. What are they?"

My eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets again. He'd never been asked my name by a mob before–no, I couldn't keep treating her like a monster. She was an NPC.

"Um...my name is Kirito."

"Ah, your human names are difficult to pronounce. Is it...Kirito?" Her intonation was slightly off, so I repeated myself.

"Kirito."

"Kirito."

"That's perfect."

That must have been the system sequence to fine-tune name pronunciation. Somewhat relieved that she was finally doing something recognizably NPC-like, I watched Kizmel repeat the process with Asuna and with Ainz.

Once she was satisfied she'd learned the way our names were said, the lady knight continued, "Kirito, Asuna, Ainz please call me Kizmel. I will leave the timing of our departure up to you. If you wish to return to your human town, I can send you nearby with another charm, or you can spend the night in one of our tents." Finally, something going exactly as he remembered, he thought. Back in the beta, he took a fair number of haps in the tents to save time on the travel back to town. The beds were nice, the food was good, and most importantly, both were free. It only lasted while the quest was active, but it would be a waste not to take advantage of that value.

Asuna read his mind like a book. With an exasperated shrug of her shoulders, she answered, "In that case, we will gratefully accept your hospitality."

"Perhaps you should save your thanks. After all..."

That's right, this is how it...wait, that's not right.

At this point, we'd been granted the use of an empty tent, as its owner had died at the start of the quest.

In other words, it was originally Kizmel's sleeping chamber that me and my three party members (all men) had borrowed. But now the lady knight was alive. Which meant…

"...without a spare tent, you will need to share mine. It will be a tight fit for all four of us, but you are welcome."

"No, we'd be happy to–four of us?"

Asuna stopped still. Kizmel seemed to be waiting for a more definitive statement, so Kirito picked up the slack.

"Thank you. We'd be happy to use it."

"Good. I will be here within the grounds, so call upon me if you should need anything. So long for now."

The proud dark elf bowed again and strode off toward the dining tent. Asuna was frozen in place for three whole seconds, then turned toward me, her face shifting through about three different expressions.

"Is it possible to back out and have her charm us over to the town?"

Sadly, he knew the answer already. One of our party in the beta had tried that very thing. As a beater, it was my duty to pass on the information in his pocket.

"Um...no."

As with the base camp itself, Kizmel's tent had been upgraded significantly since the beta.

The owner had described it as a "tight fit for four," but in reality, six of us could have set up beds with room to spare. Thick, luxurious pelts were spread across the ground, easily comfortable enough to sleep on until the morning.

The tent fabric that served as walls was thick and woven as well, enough to block out all sound from the outside. In front of the center pillar was an oddly shaped heater that emitted an orange glow and pleasant warmth.

He walked into the center of the pleasant, comfortable space and sat down, sighing in contentment. Lazily, he lifted a hus window and slowly removed my sword and various articles of armor.

When he rolled onto his back, he accidentally met the cold glare of Asuna. The fencer took a few steps over to me and gently nudged his side with the tip of her boot.

Kirito submitted to her silent pressure, rolling over and over until he hit the left wall of the tent, at which point Asuna removed her boot.

"That's your spot. Imagine there's a border right here." She traced an imaginary line with her boot about a third of the way into the tent.

He had to find out. "And...what happens if I attempt to invade your border?"

"This camp isn't considered a safe zone, is it?"

"I read you loud and clear," he said, nodding on the ground. She smiled back and walked to the other end of the room.

Ainz just shook his head "Nii-san, stop trying to raise death flags by Asuna so much… otherwise you might really trip one"

The round tent was about twenty-five feet across, so there was quite a distance from wall to wall. Kirito watched her cross, then remove her breastplate and rapier, shaking out her long hair before she sat atop the furs. She leaned her back against a pillar and mulled something over for a moment before putting her long boots in storage as well.

Asuna stretched out her long, white-socked feet, looked up at the ceiling, and let out a slow, steady sigh.

When she eventually looked over toward him, He was rudely staring back. He glanced away hastily and babbled in a high voice.

"So, um, I don't mind sleeping outside, if you prefer. I've got a sleeping bag and everything..."

"It's fine, as long as you respect the border," she responded, her voice surprisingly neutral. He hazarded another glance across the tent. Asuna was rubbing the furs on the ground with her hand as she changed the topic to something that had caught her interest.

"So, about this quest series...I'm not quite sure of the point of it yet. It's not something about how either the dark elves or forest elves are good or evil, right?"

"Eh? Um...yeah, that's right. Assuming the gist of it is the same as in the beta, there's a floor above with a place called the Sanctuary, with some incredibly powerful item sealed inside of it. And the dark elves and forest elves are fighting over it."

"Hmm...So that key in the bag of leaves was to the Sanctuary?"

"Yep. If I remember correctly, there are six of them in total, hidden across all the floors, so collecting them is the main focus of the quest."

"I see...That's what I was wondering about. You said that when we first spotted Kizmel and the forest elf fighting, we could choose which side to help, right?"

"I did."

"Which means that some players could choose to side with the forest elves, and be working the other side of the story at the same time as us, right?"

"That's right," Kirito said and finally realized what Asuna was getting at. "Oh, and you're wondering that if we come across players working on the forest elf side while were doing the quest..."

"...maybe we'll end up competing or fighting with them," she finished, her eyebrows knitted in concern. Kirito put on an awkward smile to reassure her.

"Don't worry, it won't come to that. It's not like those quests to kill a certain number of enemies or collect a certain amount of loot, where you have to compete with other players to reach your allotted total. These story-style quests make it so that each player or party has their own independent, um, whatchacallit..."

Kirito tried to frame it in a way that a beginner to MMOs would understand, but Asuna had already pieced it together.

"Oh, like this base camp? So a number of different parties can be at different points in the story and reach completely different endings?"

"Yeah, that's the gist of it. So we don't have to worry about groups following the enemy camp's quest trying to take the items from us. It's not as if one side completing the quest successfully means the opposing side loses."

"Ahh..."

Asuna nodded in apparent understanding, but her expression did not clear up in a way that suggested her fears had been eliminated. She heaved herself back up to sitting position and crossed her legs, facing me directly.

"Something still bothering you nee-chan?"

"Umm, I'm not sure if it's bothering me or just hard to grasp. If Kirito's right, and this base camp...instance? If a different one exists for every party doing the quest, then that means the same number of Kizmels and commanders exist, too. That seems kind of..."

"Ah, yeah..." Kirito finally understood the nature of Asuna's confusion; it was the greatest contradiction of questing in an online game. Normally, an incident should only arise once. For instance, in the "Herbs of the Forest" quest from the first floor, the sickly girl Agatha required special healing herbs that could only be collected from plant-type monsters. He handily–okay, it wasn't quite that easy–collected all of the quest materials, Agatha's mother brewed a medicine from them, and the girl recovered.

But the next player who visited that house would find a sickly Agatha. As long as there were players to accept the quest, she was locked in an eternal cycle of painful disease and recovery.

The campaign quest Asuna, Ainz and himself had started was an expanded version of that concept. After a twenty-minute battle, we defeated the forest elf knight and saved Kizmel's life, but as more players took on the quest after us, dozens, if not hundreds of Kizmels would die, along with a similar number of handsome forest elves.

But that was unavoidable. If each quest was only playable by one player or party for the sake of story consistency, the game would lose all pretense of fairness. It might be one thing to side-step that by creating an infinite number of unique quests, but that was not realistically possible–even for a mad genius like Akihiko Kayaba.

When he finished explaining all of this to Asuna, she nodded slowly and thanked me for the information, but he suspected she'd known it all along.

Like her, there was something about this that still sat wrong with him. After all, for an event-related NPC, Kizmel was all too human–or elvish.

A lonely, plaintive horn blew within the camp. I checked my clock and saw that it was already six o'clock. Plagued by equal parts sleepiness and hunger, he was wondering which of the two to address when the flap of the tent entrance lifted open.

It was Kizmel, the owner of the tent. She was still dressed in her gleaming metal armor and long cape. Asuna and Kirito hastily scrambled to their feet. Kizmel looked at each of us in turn and said, "I'm afraid I cannot offer you much at this humble camp, but you are free to use this tent however much you wish. The dining tent will serve you food anytime you need it, and there is also a simple tent for bathing."

Ainz cringed.

"You have a bath?" Asuna repeated instantly. Kizmel nodded and pointed off to her left.

"It is next to the dining tent. Again, it is available at your leisure."

"Thank you. I'm certainly going to take advantage of that," Asuna said without hesitation, bowing to Kizmel and heading out the tent flap without a backward glance at me all the while dragging Ainz with her.

"Nooo! Nii-san save me" Ainz shouted pitifully.

Kizmel strode farther inside and said, "I believe I will have a rest. Just say the word if you need anything."

He was still idly contemplating whether I should prioritize food or sleep when Kizmel stopped next to the heater and put her hand on the large gemstone that acted as a clasp on her shoulder plate.

With a strange tinkling sound, her armor, cape, and saber vanished into motes of light. All that was left beneath it was a sheer undergarment that shone like silk. Kirito was so shocked that he couldn't pull his gaze away.

There was a distinctly un-elven volume to the body beneath the black fabric–perhaps that was what made her a dark elf…

Suddenly, a hand grabbed the back of his collar and an icy voice said into his ear, "You should take a bath as well. You must have gotten sweaty during that boss fight."

...Well, he is certainly feeling a cold sweat now.

An irresistible force dragged me backward out through the entrance of the tent. Outside, the dark elf camp looked even more fantastical than usual with the transition from late afternoon to evening.

Here and there about the base were elegantly designed steel mesh cages holding silent, purplish flames. A restrained lute melody was playing from one of the tents, to which the crickets in the grass added their own ringing harmony.

Even the soldiers' laughs coming from the large dining tent and the clanging hammer of the elves' attendant blacksmith seemed like musical instruments adding to the performance. Kirito walked behind Asuna, who in turn was dragging Ainz who in turn was struggling unsuccessfully, concentrating on the unfamiliar sounds of the nonhuman camp. Suddenly, Kirito remembered a very important mission and called out to the back of the tunic ahead.

"Oh, Asuna."

"What?"

She slowed down so he could catch up to her side, but did not stop walking.

"The NPC blacksmith here is a really high level, so we should upgrade your weapon to its maximum while we can."

"...To the maximum? Are you sure?" she replied doubtfully.

She must have been recalling the scene of her favorite sword helplessly shattered before her eyes several days ago. Of course, that was only a fake substitute switched in with the Quick Change mod, but she hadn't known that at the time. The visceral shock still remained in her memory.

Kirito nodded vigorously to set her at ease. "You might not have a hundred-percent chance of success, but just a few materials should boost the rate to its maximum. If we can get yours to plus six, that should last you through the middle of this floor."

Asuna bought her beloved Wind Fleuret just before the strategy meeting for the first-floor boss raid. Statistically, it wasn't really cut out for the third floor, but if upgraded completely–every one of its limited upgrade attempts successful–it might serve her a little while longer.

For Kirito, this was a rare prioritization of sentiment over efficiency, but to my surprise, Asuna looked down and mulled it over. Her fingers wandered along her waist, as though searching for the sheath of the rapier that was currently stored away in her inventory.

"...Remember what you said before? About melting down a sword to use as material for a new one?"

"Ah...yeah, that's right."

"Could I have that done here, with their blacksmith?"

"Su-sure, if you want, but..."

Asuna finally stopped walking and turned to me, causing him to realize he'd stopped already. There was a rare hint of a smile on her face.

"Thanks for the concern. But if we're going to brave the risk of attempting to upgrade for a sword I'm just going to get rid of in a few days, I'd rather have it reborn here."

"I see..." If that was how Asuna felt, it wasn't his place to tell her otherwise. "All right. I'm sure it'll make for a powerful blade. Well, let's go see that blacksmith's tent..."

He headed for the other direction and Asuna grabbed my shirt.

"The bath comes first!"

He didn't remember if the base camp had a bath during the beta. Even if it did, none of our all-male party would have bothered to use it. If we wanted to bathe back then, we could just log out and take a real one. If any of us fell asleep in the tents, it was to enjoy the camping experience, nothing more.

Even now that we were permanently trapped in here, he wasn't particularly attached to the idea of bathing, but it was clearly a top priority for my temporary partner. Perhaps if there was a magical hot spring that offered its own buff effect...but in that case, he'd just jump in fully clothed. The sensation of being wet was unpleasant and added a bit of weight, but it wore off soon after you left the water.

Since this bath was a favorite of the dark elves, perhaps it did have some magical effect of its own. Then again, it might have a negative prank effect, like causing your ears to grow pointier the longer you stayed in the water…

Asuna, Ainz and Kirito arrived at a small tent behind the dining area while he pointlessly pondered the effects of elf baths. We stopped and looked at each other–there was only one entrance to the bathing tent, and there was no marking on the swinging flap that designated male or female.

"..."

Asuna silently parted the flaps to peer inside, then pulled her head out. "There's only one bath in there."

"I see."

Even as a dweeby middle schooler, Kirito knew enough not to joke that this meant we had to bathe together. He put on as serious a face as he could manage and stepped back.

"In that case, I'll just go next door and grab a bite while you're bathing. Take your time, and I'll come back when you're–"

"I asked this before, but are you sure this place is outside of the crime-prevention zone?"

Kirito blinked a few times, baffled by this seemingly unrelated question, then nodded.

"That's right..."

"Which means it would be dangerous to remove all your equipment here."

"W-well, in a general sense, sure..."

"In which case, it makes sense for one of us to stand guard at the entrance while the other is bathing. We can flip a coin to see who goes first..."

He finally understood Asuna's concern. She wasn't truly afraid of a sudden attack by monsters or enemy players, but the possibility of the male dark elves in camp barging in while she was bathing. It seemed silly to get worked up about NPCs, but I could see her point.

"Then I stay and watch" Ainz said as he tried to step out.

"Oh no you don't, if left alone you will just skip on it, Kirito call it? Heads or tails?

Asuna won the flip and thus she and a very annoyed Ainz went in.

"Damn it! We are in una virtual world, **we do NOT need a bath!** " Ainz complained as he was pulled in.

It was easy to see why a girl would feel uncertain about bathing on her own in such circumstances. If it was that bad, she probably didn't need to take a virtual bath, he thought, but she had her own priorities. In a world where death lurked around every corner, there had to be some way to relax and let all that accumulated stress ease away. He needed to find his own way to refresh while we were here in the safety of camp.

Kirito sat down and leaned back against a support pillar. From beyond the simple layer of canvas, he heard two small swishing sounds. Those had to be the commands to remove all clothes, then all underwear. There was a splash, then a contented sigh and a groan.

"...How can anyone relax like this?" Kirito growled at himself, folded his arms, and assumed a Zen sitting position.

SAO had a Meditation skill but not a specific Zen skill. He prided himself on my ability to focus my concentration, however he might not be able to fully relax here, but he could at least dedicate his mind to my future build choices and equipment upgrade paths…

"Wow! For a boy you have a very smooth skin!" Asuna said.

Ainz muttered as Asuna scrubbed his hair and washed his back with a zeal as she hummed merrily.

At this point, it seemed like the only possible solution to this quandary was if the pillar failed to support his weight, sending him tumbling backward into the tent. But the thick log stayed firm, lodged concretely into the ground.

The mental assault of splashing and humming continued unabated for the next thirty minutes.

After his temporary partner had finished her bath along with Ainz's, Kirito had slipped in for his own and was out of the water by the count of a hundred. Fortunately, neither of us had grown pointy ears after using it. We moved over to the dining tent with the surprisingly friendly elf soldiers and dined on lightly baked bread, roast chicken, vegetable soup, and fruit. When we returned to Kizmel's tent, he felt highly satisfied.

We found the tent's owner already curled up in the blankets and sleeping peacefully. The moment he saw that, all of his fatigue from earlier came flooding back, and the three of us silently took our corners of the tent and lay down on the furs. Asuna had allowed Ainz to sleep next to her as the poor boy felt lonely during night time.

He even made a hug pillow to calm himself to sleep back when he was venturing along with Kirito.

Kirito's menu window said that it was two in the morning. No wonder he felt awake–he'd gotten a solid seven hours of sleep. Taking care not to make any noise, he closed the window and slipped out of the blankets.

When he passed through the hanging flap of the tent, the night lamps of the camp were mostly out, leaving the area lit by pale moonlight. A quick scan of the area showed no one moving except for two sentries marking the walls.

So where could Kizmel have gone? Perhaps onward to the next quest on her own? He shook my head–an NPC wouldn't be that independent, and her HP bar listed next to Ainz, Asuna's and mine was still full.

He thought it over, then decided to head for the one part of the dark elf base he hadn't visited yet: behind the commander's tent at the very back of the clearing.

The moonlight in Aincrad was bright enough in any place open to the sky to make it easy to walk around. The moon itself was out of sight unless you were close to the outer perimeter, of course, so its light was reflecting off the lower side of the floor above, but that just gave the blue glow an even more unearthly beauty.

He headed east around the great command tent and stopped when the space behind it came into view. It was a tiny, grassy stretch with a single tree. He recalled it being an entirely empty, dead space in the beta.

But now there were three new objects beneath the long branches of the tree. Three simple but beautiful grave markers carved of wood.

The woman he'd been searching for was standing before the leftmost grave. She was in a tunic and tights now–not the underwear from earlier, but still without her signature armor. She was downcast, staring at the base of the grave. In the light of the moon, her smoky-purple hair was glowing lilac.

After a few seconds of hesitation, Kirito slowly approached, stopping several feet away. The dark elf knight noticed his footsteps and looked up at me.

"...Kirito. Tomorrow will be difficult if you don't get your rest," she whispered.

"I slept better than I usually do. Thanks for letting us use your tent."

"I don't mind. It is too large for me alone," she responded, then looked back to the grave.

He took two more steps and examined the marker. There were small words carved into its fresh, unfinished surface. He squinted and made out the name Tilnel.

"Tilnel...?" he said aloud and noticed that it sounded very similar in rhythm to Kizmel.

She paused, then said, "My sister. She lost her life in the first battle after we descended to this floor last month."

The phrase descended to this floor indicated that the dark elves–and likely the forest elves as well–understood that the floating castle Aincrad was made of numerous stacked floors. Not only that, they could use their magical charms to sidestep the system of labyrinth stairs and town teleport gates. Perhaps their movement range was limited from this floor up to the ninth.

He'd had this basic knowledge of the elves since the beta, when he completed the campaign quest for the first time. But he was so preoccupied getting further into the game than anyone else at the time, it never occurred to him. That the battle between the elves might tie into the game world itself.

He was struck by the sudden urge to ask Kizmel how Aincrad came to be, but he held it in with a breath of cool night air. It wasn't fair to ask such an important question while Asuna and Ainz were both absent, and this wasn't the time to ask, anyway.

Instead, he asked about Kizmel's late sister.

"Was Tilnel...a knight, too?"

"No. My sister was an herbalist. Her job on the battlefield was to tend to the wounded. She never carried anything larger than a dagger. She was at the rear vanguard when the forest elves' falconers ambushed us from behind..."

He grimaced and held his breath. The Forest Elven Falconers were the worst mobs on the third floor after the bosses and event enemies. The dark elves had their own Dark Elven Wolfhandlers, but the falconers were the bigger danger, given that they could attack you from ground and air simultaneously.

However, she chose to interpret my silence, Kizmel's tense profile eased somewhat.

"I have no chairs or blankets, but you ought to sit. There's no need to stand around."

"Um...sure."

He sat down next to her. The thick, soft grass of this tiny graveyard supported his weight with ease.

The knight picked up a leather skin sitting next to her, pulled out the plug, and took a swig, then passed it to him. He thanked her and accepted the drink, temporarily forgetting that he was interacting with an NPC rather than another person.

When hr put my lips to the skin, a thick liquid flooded between them. It was slightly sweet and sour, and when he finished, there was a burning like alcohol in the back of my throat that felt fresh and cool.

He handed back the skin. Kizmel held it out over the grave and poured the rest of the liquid onto Tilnel's grave marker.

"This was her favorite: moontear wine made of moontear herbs. I snuck some out of the castle, hoping to bring it to her. In the end, she never had a sip..."

The empty skin slipped from her hand and plopped lightly on the grass. Kizmel crouched, lining her knees together and hugging them tight.

"When I accepted the mission to retrieve the Jade Key yesterday, I was prepared to die. Part of me might have hoped for it. At best, I might have taken that forest elf down with me, otherwise I would simply have lost...But fate helped you guide me away from my death. And after I had sworn that no gods existed in this forsaken place anymore..."

Kizmel glanced over at me. I noticed that her onyx eyes were moist and was at a loss for how to react. Kizmel and her sister Tilnel were residents of this world, risking their lives for the sake of their people, and he was nothing but a temporary visitor, an outsider…

But in truth, that was not the case anymore. Asuna, Ainz and himself were trapped in this game now. Just like Kizmel, we had only one life to give. And yet, when we inserted ourselves into the fight between her and the forest elf knight, he'd foolishly rested on his laurels, convinced that once we were half-dead, the dark elf would sacrifice herself to let us win.

It had been wrong of him to draw my sword with that mind-set. Whether he knew what would happen or not, he should have fought with all of his ability. To protect my own life and the lives of Asuna, Ainz and Kizmel.

Biting back a sudden flood of regret, he said, "It wasn't the gods. Asuna, Ainz and I were there of our own will. We'll stick with you until the end. Until you get back home."

The dark elf knight grinned. "In that case, I will do my best to protect you. Until our paths part."

 **Thursday, December 15, 2022**.

Kizmel, the level-15 dark elf knight; Kirito, the level-20 swordsman; Ainz the level-21 swordsman and Asuna, the level-14 fencer and temporary party member, left the base camp for a new adventure.

The night had not broken yet. It was three in the morning, and the trees of the forest were quietly slumbering in the pale moonlight. When Kizmel and Kirito returned from their graveyard vigil, we found Asuna not sleeping but fully packed and ready to leave along with a rather still sleepy looking Ainz.

When the fencer saw me without his weapon or armor on, she looked annoyed and wondered why he'd left if not to get prepared for the trip. When he was followed into the tent by Kizmel in her thin underclothes, Asuna's glare turned downright icy. His only choice was to claim that he'd been ready for hours.

Asuna continually threw me skeptical glares as we walked through the camp clearing, but only until we passed through the narrow canyon out into the Forest of Wavering Mists again. The sight was even more fantastical now that the mossy trees and low, thick mists were lit by pale blue moonlight. He'd seen the exact same thing months before, but I couldn't help but gasp at its beauty. Asuna was completely bowled over. She murmured, "It's stunning," and didn't move for another thirty seconds.

Kizmel silently waited along with Kirito, though it was hardly the first time he'd been surprised by her behavior. It would be perfectly ordinary behavior for an NPC waiting for players to react, but it seemed to me that she was choosing to take her time and respect Asuna's feeling of wonder.

When his partner came to her senses again, the knight spoke softly.

"She loved the night forest as well...Come, let us be off."

The quest given to us by the commander after completing the "Jade Key" was titled "Vanquishing the Spiders."

The forest was exploding with poisonous spider monsters who were sabotaging patrol missions, so it was our job to find the nest.

He'd done this quest before, of course, but the location of the nest was generated randomly, so his memory was of no use here. We just had to, trek through the forest, fighting spiders until we narrowed down their source.

Poison would be a constant threat on this quest.

Damage-causing poison was the most common status effect out of the many negative effects in SAO. Level-1 "weak poison" and level-2 "light poison" weren't such a big deal–as long as you were prepared to deal with them.

He made sure to check with Asuna as we hiked through the forest.

"How many antidote potions do you have?"

"Hmm..." She brought up her window with a jingle. "Three in my pouch, sixteen in the inventory."

"About the same as me. That'll be enough."

Something stuck out to me. Unlike healing crystals, potions couldn't be used on other people. So if Kizmel got afflicted with poison, she'd need to use her own potion to recover…

he turned back to the elf knight, who was bringing up the rear. "Um, Kizmel? Do you have any antidote potions...?"

"I do have a few, just in case, but I do not need them. I have this," she remarked with what I thought might be a hint of pride, showing off her right hand in its tight leather glove. There was a ring shoved directly over the glove on her index finger. The gemstone gleamed brightly despite the dim light–green, just like an antidote potion…

"What kind of ring is that?" Ainz asked.

"I received it along with my sword from Her Majesty when I was knighted. It allows me to use a purifying charm once every ten minutes."

"...W..."

Wowzers!

Kirito barely kept the word from bursting out of him. In all of his time in the game, he had never seen or heard of an accessory that allowed for unlimited poison curing–even with a cooldown timer. If it actually worked on level-5 "lethal poison," this was an elite item of the highest quality.

Kizmel coughed awkwardly, sensing the desire written plain on my face.

"I cannot give it to you, much as you might like it. For one thing, this ring draws upon what little magic is left in the blood of Lyusula, so you humans would not be able to use it, I suspect." You suspect? He nearly asked but held back. "Wh-why do you say that? I don't want your ring at all. I'm just checking to ensure that you're equipped to deal with poison," he said breezily, denying any greed on his part.

Ainz however read the code on the ring, memorizing it and saving it for later use when crafting an item when went back to the data node he found.

Asuna grinned. "That's right. You're a boy, so you'd never stoop to demanding a ring from a girl."

"O-of course...Wait, are you saying that the reverse would be possible?" he grumbled. Asuna's smile disappeared.

"I wasn't saying that! When did I ever beg you for a ring?"

"I-I wasn't referring to you specifically!"

"So… would it be okay if I gave a ring to nee-chan?" Ainz asked.

Asuna blushed and hugged him "Sooo cuteee!"

"Oh so is okay when **he** says it uh?" Kirito complained.

We stopped walking and glared daggers at each other. The elf knight looked on, concerned.

"Kirito, Asuna. I hate to interrupt your chitchat, but–"

Grrr.

"–something is approaching. Based on the footsteps, it is neither elf, nor human, nor beast."

Grrrrr.

"There are two of them, from the front and right. I will leave the one ahead to you."

Grrr...rr?

Asuna and Kirito stopped glaring at each other and looked in the direction of our travel. A shadow was flitting at high speed through the trees. It only came up to our waists, but it was very wide. Many thin legs skittered and scuttled, gliding it along the ground.

Within a second, a cursor popped into view, partway between pink and red. The name beneath the HP bar read THICKET SPIDER.

"Prepare for battle, Asuna!" Kirito called, drawing his sword and bracing himself for the fight. Asuna already had her Wind Fleuret in hand. This quest was an opportunity to gather a few more materials to forge herself a new sword back at camp, meaning it was the last time to shine for the fine battle partner she'd fought with since the first floor.

"Its only direct attack is a bite, but watch out for the thread it shoots from its ass–it'll slow you down!"

"Understood!" she shouted back, then briefly shot me a dirty look. He wondered what she was mad about this time, then realized my poor choice of words.

"S-sorry! I shouldn't have said ass! It's not an ass, but more of a, um..."

"Just stop staying that word!"

"Raising a lot of death flags with her nii-san"

"Just get ready! Remember we need them for mats to forge and or upgrade our weapons"

Asuna neatly sidestepped the poisonous spider fangs that came lunging at us, then thrust a furious Linear into its giant eye.

The venomous fangs and sticky thread were not to be trifled with, but the Thicket Spider was one of the easier insect-type monsters until this point. It didn't fly or run away, and its hide was not protected by a hard shell. All of its attacks were simple and direct, so it was easy to time when to switch players for combos.

Asuna knocked down about 40 percent of the spider's HP with sword skills and regular attacks, then stepped back and glanced at Kirito. He noticed her eye contact and prepared to join the fight. If this was in the open rather than the forest, Asuna could handle the spider all on her own, but the threads the spider shot from its rear would last for close to a minute, which gradually decreased the available space to fight as the battle wore on.

It was always possible to move to a fresh location without webs, but there was the risk that you'd snag more mobs on the way–not to mention the treants that looked just like withered old trees.

The Thicket Spider charged forward with a very spidery hiss–at least, as far as video game spiders went. Asuna released an Oblique, a low thrust skill. Its range was lower than Linear, but with the user's weight behind it, the power was higher. Her sword knocked back with a flashy visual effect.

"Switch!" Kirito yelled, striking the large spider on its soft butt. It was only a normal swing, but he hit it right on the weak point of its thread-producing end, and it wheeled around with a painful screech. The cluster of eyes along the front of its head glared at me, poisonous jaw working furiously.

"You got the Agro on you nii-san!" Ainz warned.

Kirito knew that already. It was to be expected as he had hit a weak point.

The Thicket Spider was one of the smallest spiders of its type, but it still made for a menacing sight, several feet across from leg to leg. Anyone afraid of spiders would suffer a tremendous mental debuff, if he had to guess. He was used to spiders of all sizes from the shrine grounds near his childhood home–he'd even gotten stuck face-first in the web of a yellow spider once–so it wasn't a big enough deal to affect him in combat, but he was surprised at how well the urbane, fastidious Asuna was handling the giant arachnid.

He got so wrapped up in wonder at that last bit that he glanced away and met her waiting gaze for just a second. As though waiting for its moment, the spider struck. The eight gray, hairy legs tensed, and it bounded into the air. If it's jumping attack succeeded in causing a Tumble status, he'd end up bitten several times by its poisonous fangs, so avoidance was the top priority.

"Fwah..."

Due to my late reaction, he knew he couldn't step aside or counterattack with a heavy sword skill in time, so he fell onto my back, waited a split second, then kicked with all my might. The toe of my boot glowed yellow and swung in a semicircle through the air: Crescent Moon, a martial arts kicking skill.

It was meant to be used from a standing position into a backflip, but as long as the motion was correct, you could pull it off while lying down.

So the skill was convenient to throw while lying on my back, but there was a serious drawback: If he missed, he would be hit with both a Tumble status and movement delay. Fortunately, it was worth the frightening gamble, as his foot struck the airborne spider directly at the base of one of its legs. With a satisfying thud, the spider shot away, spinning through the air.

"Nice one… so it's my turn now" Ainz said as he shot out with a sonic leap spearing the spider with his blade with a satisfying crunchy sound.

She was not expecting that reaction in the slightest and looked awkward for a moment, but was kind enough not to leave me hanging. After the high five, she wasted no time in getting after me.

"You were getting distracted during that battle, weren't you?"

"...Y-yes, ma'am."

"What were you thinking about?"

He stopped to consider his answer under her withering gaze, then recalled that he was surprised how well she handled the giant spider. However, whether to mention that out loud or not was another quandary.

"Must be because she has two beautiful ladies with him, wouldn't it be normal for any man to be distracted by such lovely companions?" Ainz asked in a sweet and naive sounding way.

Asuna and the NPC Kizmel awed at this.

Well at least Kirito was saved.

Kizmel then coughed and went back into character.

"Sloppiness against even weak foes will lead to disaster, Kirito," came a voice from my right.

Kizmel was standing to the side, arms crossed, having dispatched the other Thicket Spider well before Asuna, Ainz and himself finished. Like Asuna, her face was hard. It felt like he was being scolded by both a classmate and a teacher at once. He had to make an excuse for himself.

"I-I wasn't being sloppy, I was just thinking..."

"And that's what I'm asking you about."

"Uhh...Umm..." Nothing convenient was coming to mind, so he had no choice but to lay the truth bare. "I was just thinking that it's surprising you don't have any issues with the spiders and wasps and such..."

"Huh?! Were you really wasting your time thinking about that nonsense?!"

"Y-yes," he admitted. Her shapely eyebrows went wide with displeasure for a moment, then she sighed.

"Once they're that big, the bugs are no different from wild animals. I can't waste my time being afraid of how monsters look."

"Ah, I see."

She shook her head in exasperation, and Kizmel chuckled softly. He turned to the dark elf in surprise and saw her looking down at the short fencer with warmth in her eyes.

"What is the meaning of that gesture you just did?" she asked, waving her hand forward. He thought this over–was it right to explain to Kizmel, an NPC of the world of SAO, the significance of a real-world high five? Before he could come to a conclusion, Asuna spoke up.

"It's a human gesture meant to congratulate one another for their effort."

She held up her own hand and slapped Kizmel's much more thoroughly than she had bothered to with me, producing a satisfying smack. Kizmel looked down at her palm and squeezed it, as though savoring the sensation.

"I see. We elves do not make it a practice to touch others often...but this is not unwelcome."

She held up her hand again and looked to Kirito this time. He gave her a hearty high five, realizing it would just be awkward to hold back now. There was another crisp smack and an instant of warmth on his hand.

A memory flooded back into his brain.

The very first day of this game of death–it felt like ancient history at this point. But in fact, it was before everything turned deadly. He was thinking of the afternoon of Sunday, November 6, thirty-nine days before, when his very first friends in Aincrad, Klein and Ainz, lazily hunted blue boars with me outside the Town of Beginnings on the first floor.

Klein was struggling with the initiation of a sword skill, so he taught him the basics of the first motion, then slapped him five when he succeeded in killing his first boar. That was the last time he ever contacted him.

As soon as Akihiko Kayaba's cruel tutorial on the new rules of the game finished, he headed for the next village as soon as he could. He'd left Klein, a helpless newbie, back in the Town of Beginnings. He abandoned him.

"...nii-san?"

"What's the matter, Kirito?"

He came back to his senses with a start. His hand was still hanging up in the air, so he lowered it and said, "Er, n-nothing."

His awkward smile did nothing to remove their concerned looks, but Kizmel soon moved on.

"I see. Let's get going. If we follow the direction from which those spiders appeared, we should find the nest eventually."

"C-cool. So that means we're heading...uh..."

"This way," Asuna said exasperatedly, pointing to the northwest. We set off again, and after about thirty steps, Asuna pulled level with me to whisper into my ear. "Hey, did Kizmel just say something about 'corporeal' monsters?"

"Eh? Um, yeah."

"Which means there are monsters in this game without bodies?"

"Huh? Yeah, like ghosts and stuff?" he asked in return. She blanched briefly at the word ghosts.

"Like...like that."

"Hmm, I dunno...I didn't see any in the beta. Besides, I don't know how you defeat a monster without a body in a game where you can only use swords..."

"Let's hope so."

He wasn't sure what she was hoping for, but Asuna didn't bother to elaborate. She slowed her pace to draw even with Kizmel. He continued his march in the direction of the spider nest.

After another four battles with Thicket Spiders and their larger cousins, Copse Spiders, slightly adjusting our direction after each encounter, we eventually spotted a small hill rising ahead.

Highlighted against the side of the moonlit hill was the gaping black mouth of a natural cave. He crouched in the shadow of the trees and saw about fourteen small spiders (still the size of real tarantulas) darting around the entrance. This was the spider nest we were after.

"...Do we have to get rid of those little ones, too?" asked Asuna, looking at the nest in annoyance. He shrugged.

"No, those are just critters."

"What? Do they jingle?"

Ainz and Kirito turned upward to look at her in confusion.

She spoke with the bossy tone of a teacher explaining to her students. "Didn't you just say it was a 'clitter'? Like clitter-clatter? Do they make lots of noise?"

"Ummm...no. 'Critters' in an MMO are like background animals that aren't monsters. You can't interact with them; they're just for show. Like butterflies or alley cats in town."

"You know what? I'm getting tired of asking about every single game term, so why don't you just create a slang glossary for me?"

"Ugh..." If she didn't mind being ripped off, she could ask Argo for something like that.

Ainz sighed "I got that covered, here nee-chan, is kinda painful to see a good player like you have nearly no knowledge of this world" Ainz said.

Kirito was about to snort but quickly stopped when Asuna glared heatedly at him.

Kizmel chuckled from behind us and murmured, "Your words have not been unified yet, it seems. I suppose that is not a surprise, for there were nine nations of humankind when the Great Separation happened."

Asuna and Kirito shared a look.

The "Separation" was a term many used to refer to an incident that arose one month before. Many players suffered sudden disconnections and were stuck in limbo for around an hour before they rejoined the game. When it became clear that every player was going to be disconnected in such a way, he stopped his breakneck leveling for a bit and waited around in an inn room so that it didn't catch me off guard. The mysterious phenomenon caused alarm and chaos at first, but the common assumption that emerged was that it was just our bodies being temporarily disconnected so they could be transferred to a proper hospital.

But this Great Separation Kizmel spoke of must be something else. She was a resident of this world, not a player diving in through the NerveGear like Kirito, Ainz and Asuna. It must have something to do with the creation of Aincrad the floating castle…

He instantly had a number of different questions to ask Kizmel on the subject, but she cut me off before he could open my mouth.

"Come, let us investigate the hole. We will need more concrete information to bring to the commander about the spiders."

According to his increasingly unhelpful beta knowledge, the spider-vanquishing quest had two stages. Part one involved finding an article from one of the dark elf scouts within the nest and bringing it back to the base. In the second part, we had to return to the cave and fight the queen spider in the second level of the nest.

So even though he knew this opening led right into the spider's nest, that alone did not fulfill the quest requirements. We'd have to delve into the clammy cave twice.

"...I don't like these natural dungeons," Asuna grumbled, stepping into a shallow puddle with her leather boots. Kirito nodded in agreement.

"If only it was a bit brighter in there..."

The man-made dungeons, like the giant labyrinth towers, at least had oil lamps or luminescent stones on the walls to keep the interior lit. But this cave was almost pitch-black; the only source of light was very dim moss that gave off a faint glow in the dark. To counteract the darkness, Asuna and I carried torches in our off hands, but they did not cast very much light and would extinguish if dropped into water. Even worse, he normally fought with one hand free, so the difference made everything feel wrong in battle. Still, it was better than being a shield user who had to do without that valuable defense. And warriors with two- handed weapons would slap us for being spoiled–they had to find a dry spot on the ground to drop the torch before they could fight at all.

Thankfully, in this situation, we had Kizmel with her special elven ability to see in the dark. Unlike the jumping spiders out in the forest, the ones in the nest were speedy fishing spiders, and Kizmel's ability to warn us of their presence before they reached the torchlight radius gave us plenty of time to ready our blades.

We searched each room on the first level of the cave slowly but steadily, occasionally finding chests with treasure, or valuable ores that could be used to craft Ainz and Asuna's next weapon. Once we had nearly finished mapping out the entire floor, Asuna raised a belated question.

"Hey, is this dungeon one of those...instance things? Or is it...?"

"I believe the antonym of an instanced dungeon would be a public dungeon. This is the public kind," Kirito murmured quietly into Asuna's ear, afraid that if Kizmel heard she would give us another lecture about the fractured language of humankind. "The reason I know it's public is because there are other quests that use this dungeon aside from ours."

"Oh? Like what?"

"Well, there's a pet-finding quest at the next village past the forest, and another one from the main city of the..."

His mouth shut with a snap. Asuna's orange-lit face looked at me curiously, and he tore away to look behind us.

The way we'd come was almost complete darkness, without a soul in sight...but did he just hear something? A faint, brief scrape of metal?

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"...How many hours have we been on the third floor, Asuna?"

"After all the sleep we got, I think it's around fourteen hours."

"Ugh...crap, that's the exact timing."

"Exact timing of what?"

Kirito turned to look back again and whispered quickly, "This is the location of a major quest you can start from the main city. There are a few different patterns to the quest, so it's not guaranteed, but a solid percentage of players doing that quest are going to be coming here for an item. Depending on the size of the party, it might take between ten to fifteen hours for them to get this far..."

Just then, he heard another faint clang of metal. Kizmel stopped dead still, a sign that it wasn't just a trick of my ears. She watched and waited for a tense moment, face sharp, then turned to us. "Kirito, Asuna–it would seem there are other visitors to this nest." "Yeah. It must be other pla...human warriors. We have reasons to avoid encountering them, Kizmel."

"I do as well," the elf knight grinned and pointed to a divot in the wall. "Let us hide there for a moment."

"Huh? How can we hide with the light of the torches all around?" Asuna asked, wide-eyed. Kizmel smiled again.

"The people of the forest have their own ways of deception." She pushed our backs, guiding us to the three-foot-deep depression in the wall and up against the surface, then pressing herself against us to hide us from view. Her ample bosom, tight stomach, and smooth thighs were pressed directly against Ainz face much to his chagrin, and Kiroto was afraid that the game's harassment code would go off, but apparently that did not apply when it was an NPC initiating the contact. Kizmel, of course, had no idea what was running through Kirito's mind.

"Extinguish the torches," she commanded. I did as she said and dropped his light into a puddle on the floor.

Once we were shrouded in darkness, Kizmel stretched out her cape to cover all four of us.

Oddly enough, while the cape seemed to be woven solid from the outside, it was sheer and see-through from the inside. All he could see was blackness, of course, but there was just enough green glow from the moss across the way to tell that the cape wouldn't block my sight.

That wasn't the only surprise to me. Despite not using the Hiding skill, its familiar hide rate percentage readout appeared on the left side of my view. Even more shocking, the number was at 95 percent. Kizmel's cape had a magic–er, charm–effect that activated the Hiding skill. Between this and the antidote ring, Kirto was getting very jealous.

"You were saying earlier, Kirito?" Asuna asked at the lowest possible volume, interrupting his fit of envy. It took him a moment to remember what we'd been talking about.

"Oh, right. The people coming up from behind us are on that quest. It's the guild creation quest, the one the other frontier players were desperate to get started."

"...!"

Her eyes went wide in the darkness–she remembered. He was going to continue, but Kizmel gave us a warning first.

"Quiet. They'll pass by soon."

Asuna and Kirito shut their mouths and swallowed hard.

Ten seconds later, we heard the rattling of armor on the move. He counted at least two heavily armored fighters, if not three. There were more footsteps, however; the party had to be five or six in total.

Finally, there came a rough shout, shockingly loud and careless in the midst of a dungeon.

"What the hell?! All the chests have been ransacked already!"

It was a very familiar voice, one that felt like I'd heard it just minutes ago. I had last seen him a whole fifteen hours ago, but something about the circumstances–the fact that I hadn't even been to the town yet or that his booming voice was so memorable–made me think, Not you again! Asuna's pale face grimaced in the darkness, Ainz was trying to face - palm but was unable due the position he was with Kizmel.

We held our breath for several seconds. The first player passed by us, so close we could reach out to touch him.

He wore thick scale armor with a chain coif that covered his entire head. It was too dark to make out the color of his tunic and pants, but they would be moss green, without a doubt. In his hands were a round shield and a rare one-handed ax. It was a crude weapon for the front line, but he nimbly spun it around in his fingers.

The next man to pass by also had a shield with his sword, and the third was unhelmeted. Instead, his hair was fashioned into large spikes that made his head look like a pointed mace. His eyes were sharp and his mouth was twisted in displeasure. He wore a steel breastplate and held a sword in one hand.

This man's name was Kibaou, and they (Kirito and Ainz) been running afoul of him since the boss fight of the first floor. As an avowed opponent of the former beta testers, he had plenty of reason to hate him and Ainz as the one who ripped him a new one, and if he saw them here in the dungeon, he'd no doubt have a foul word–or two, or three, or four–to say to us.

Which would in turn make Ainz attack him and his group until they either learned their lesson or…

Ainz held no qualms about PKing under the right conditions.

The instant he passed by, Kibaou's beady eyes glanced at the hollow we were hiding in, and the hiding percentage dropped to 90. Fortunately, it did not drop enough to reveal us. Three more players followed him past, their raucous clanking growing fainter and fainter until it finally died out.

A few seconds later, Kizmel straightened up and returned her cape to its normal position. We heaved sighs of relief as we got to our feet. His partner looked worried.

"I felt more nervous than when we face monsters."

"Yeah. It probably wouldn't have turned into a battle if they'd seen us, though," he answered. Asuna's head waved, not quite a nod or a shake.

"Well, they might have demanded that we share what we found in the chests."

"I dunno. I don't think even he would go that far...I hope..."

"No, I can completely see him doing that, socialism suck, hurrah for capitalism"

Kizmel turned away from the direction the party had gone and asked, "Did you know some of those people?"

"Um, kind of...Were not exactly on friendly terms, you might say..."

"Oh? I'd heard that the humans in this castle had maintained a healthy peace for years."

"W-we wouldn't come to blows, of course. And we help each other out when fighting big monsters...but we're not friends."

There was no way to explain the difference between former beta testers and retail players to Kizmel, so my explanation had to be simple, but she seemed to buy the story. She grinned weakly and said, "I see. Then it must be like the relationship between my Pagoda Knights Brigade and the royal Sandalwood Knights."

What does she mean, Pagoda? Kirito wondered. Asuna chattered in delight.

"Oh, that's lovely! Your knight brigades are named after trees? Are there any others?"

"There's the Trifoliate Knights Brigade, the heavy units. We are not on good terms with them, either."

"Ahh...In that case, if I get to join any of them, I'll go with the Pagoda Knights."

Kizmel grimaced awkwardly. "I'm afraid that there is no historical precedent for humans being awarded the knight's sword from the queen of Lyusula. But based on your accomplishments, you might be able to win an audience with her..."

"Really? Let's keep it up, then!" Asuna beamed, nothing but optimism on her mind. Kirito, however, had extra knowledge that caused me to avoid her gaze. In the beta, he'd followed this quest all the way up to the dark elf castle town on the ninth floor, but that was as far as he got. When the quest concluded, the gate to the castle remained steadfastly closed…

"Well, let's get going!" Asuna bubbled, already an apprentice knight in her own mind, and slapped his back.

We scraped them against the stone walls to get the flame started again, peered out of the hollow, and trained our ears on the direction the party of six had gone.

If Kibaou's team was attempting the quest to establish their guild, they were heading for the second level of the cave. We'd already cleaned out all the spiders on the first level, so they could be at the stairs by now. The mobs down below would be tougher, but not enough to threaten a party of six.

Kirito brought up his window and checked the map. We'd charted four-fifths of the first level, with only two spots left. One was probably the room with the stairs down, and the other was the room with the item we sought. We needed to head for the room away from the direction Kibaou was moving.

"Let's go this way..." he started to say, then caught Kizmel staring at me. He wondered why. Was she confused by the menu screen? Or simply pretending not to see it?

"...It has been a long time since I saw that human charm."

"Huh? Ch-charm?"

"Indeed. It is the art of Mystic Scribing, one of the few charms left to humankind after its magic was lost, is it not? The one that allows you to record knowledge, even physical items, within your mystic tome..."

Now that she mentioned it, a glowing purple screen that floated in midair at the wave of a hand was pretty much magic, no two ways around it. He nodded in agreement.

"Y-yes, that's it. According to the map in my Mystic...Scribbly book, we haven't checked this area yet..."

Behind Kizmel, Asuna tried to hold back a belly laugh at my pathetic answer.

We easily cleared out the spiders in one of the two remaining rooms, discovering a faint light blinking on the back wall. Ainz sheathed his sword and approached to find a silver decoration carved in the shape of a leaf. At the base was a gleaming white gem like an opal. He looked up and checked the fastener of Kizmel's cape on her left shoulder. The design and coloring were exactly the same.

"...It is the insignia of the Pagoda Knights. It must have belonged to a scout who was investigating the cave. The owner cannot be alive anymore," Kizmel remarked gloomily. Ainz offered her the brooch, but she waved her head. "You must take that to the commander, Ainz. We ought to return for our report."

"...All right. I'll hold on to it, then." he put the emblem in his pouch, and a message scrolled by on the left side of his view, announcing quest progress.

When Kirito found this scout's memento during the beta after a long, hard slog, the entire party cheered triumphantly. But he was in no mood for that this time. It occurred to me that from the moment we rescued Kizmel in the forest half a day before, his mental concepts of quests and NPCs were subtly and steadily shifting, Ainz however was already different, with deference and care he put it on his inventory and gave a sad glance at Kizmel.

Mobs respawned at a much higher rate in dungeons, so the spiders around the entrance were probably back by now. Kirito trained his ears for the sound of many legs, torch in one hand and sword in the other.

But in a few seconds, what he heard was not the skittering of monsters, but the shouts of men.

"Crap...It's coming up the stairs!"

"Run, run! Back to the entrance!"

There was the crashing of metal armor and panicked footsteps. Then the screech of a very large monster, like dead wood creaking and cracking.

"No one said anythin' about such a freakin' huge spider! What the hell's goin' on?!" Kibaou bellowed. The irritation in his voice from earlier had been amplified into panic.

Kirito turned to his three companions to confer.

"What should–"

"What should we do, Kirito?!"

"I will leave this decision in your hands!"

"–we...do..."

Kirito never volunteered to be the party leader! He wailed internally, but it was too late for that. Now it was up to me to decide how to respond to this unexpected turn of events.

"I guess we should help the moron Brigade" Ainz said annoyed at this turn of events "Maybe if we save their asses from the fire they will be grateful… not" Ainz said.

"We'll let them pass by and stop the spider as it chases. If we can get it into that big room over there, we should have enough space to fight," Kirito said quickly. Asuna and Kizmel both stared at me. There were different thoughts behind the hazel-brown and onyx-black pairs of eyes, but both women nodded in agreement before I needed to spend valuable seconds trying to figure out what they were.

"All right. You can lead the way."

"If you have decided to fight, I will follow."

Kizmel was one thing, but Asuna's agreement took him a bit by surprise.

There was no time to waste asking why, however; I had to consult my mental map of the dungeon and estimate Kibaou's route.

"This way!"

He waved his torch and started running after the sound of footsteps.

Within just ten steps, the corridor intersected with a wide cross path. Kibaou's group should come down that path from left to right, the queen spider on their heels. Once the players had passed, we'd grab her attention and pull her back to the room where the scout's memento had been. The party would continue running all the way to the entrance, perhaps running across some minor spiders near the entrance, but otherwise convinced they'd outrun the queen.

We leaned back into another hollow in the wall, Asuna's torch still lit but his extinguished. He waited in the thicker darkness, timing when to charge. The ideal method of fishing mobs was through a taunt skill or throwing knives, but he didn't have either at his disposal yet–His only option was to swing his sword into the intersection and catch the queen as she passed by. And because he'd need to back away immediately, ge couldn't use a sword skill with a movement delay after it.

Ainz gripped his Anneal Blade and heard the shouts of the group again.

"It's an intersection! Which way's the exit?!"

"We just went through here! Straight, straight, straight!"

Six pairs of clanking footsteps approached. Ainz and Kirito flattened their backs against the wall, watching the intersection with laser focus from five yards away.

Two seconds later, a gang of men raced across their field of vision. The man in the lead was still casually twirling his ax, but the others looked desperate. When running from a dangerous foe, the lightly armored types would always break away from the slower, heavier kind, but Kibaou's leadership kept his team tightly packed.

Once the party had rushed past, they heard a roar like scraping sticks again. Kirito couldn't hear the sound of those thin legs, but the unique vibration of many spider legs hitting the ground traveled through his boots. Three seconds left, two…

Now!

They leaped forward silently, Anneal Blade raised for a compact swing. Kirito wasn't looking for huge damage, but he needed to generate enough agro to make the spider change targets. The moment he started my swing, a giant form crossed the left side of my vision. First there were round, glowing red eyes, then legs the size of tree trunks, and lastly a bulging body.

With a silent scream, Kirito struck the giant spider's flank. It was nothing more than a slightly charged normal swing, but it was enough for the point to pierce the dull purple exoskeleton and send green liquid shooting out.

"Kishashaa!"

The spider bellowed in rage and stopped still as he pulled the sword out. Kirito leaped back and raced for Asuna and Kizmel, not bothering to check if the spider was following.

When he looked over my shoulder, the queen spider had just finished a ninety-degree turn. Only to be meet by Ainz own attack that came to the side.

His gaze met her many glowing eyes, and I noticed that the first of her two HP bars was slightly decreased. The name listed was NEPHILA REGINA. He knew that Regina was Latin for "queen," which made her Queen Nephila. In that light, the silver patterns on her gleaming purple body did lend her a regal air.

"Looks like you got her attention," Asuna whispered, peeling away from the wall.

The eight-legged queen crouched down, eyes flashing dangerously, as though displeased with the light of Asuna's torch. Then–

"Kshaa!"

It screeched and raced forward–but we weren't just standing and watching. As soon as the first leg twitched forward, all four of us were off and running. These narrow corridors were no place to fight a foe with movement-disabling attacks.

After ten seconds of running, the opening to a large empty room appeared on the right. We darted inside and the two women spread out around me in the center. Kirito scraped the torch in my left hand on the floor to light it again, just as the queen spider barreled into the room. It charged directly for me without hesitation.

He stood and watched the two front legs as they rose high in the air. As long as nothing had changed from the beta, the queen spider used the following attacks: jabs from the front legs, bites from poison fangs, a sticky spray from the rear, and a vertical jump that landed with a shock wave. The webbing attack would stick a player in place if stuck to the feet, and if it touched your head, there was no way to swing a weapon. The shock wave was similar in nature to the one used by the minotaur bosses on the second floor–if you lost your footing, you'd either stumble or fall over.

Without the time to tell Asuna, Ainz and Kizmel about these attacks beforehand, he'd just have to instruct them in real time.

Watching the spider's legs closely, he shouted, "When she jabs with her legs, the one that twitches will go first! If you don't get outside her range, both will hit you!"

Just as the words were out of my mouth, the right front leg twitched, and he jumped to the left.

A giant claw slammed into the spot where he'd just been standing, and the left leg swung forward a moment later but couldn't follow me because the first leg was in the way. The instant it, too, stuck into the ground, he shouted a command.

"One sword skill!"

Uncowed by the unfamiliar boss monster before them, both women and child immediately brandished their weapons, blades glowing. He noted the glow out of the corners of my eyes and struck at the spider's legs with a Horizontal. The beast was hit by light and sound in quatruplate, screeching hideously as a third of its top HP bar fell away. It had to be Kizmel's power that made that kind of damage possible.

At this pace, as long as we played it safe and limited ourselves to single skills, we could finish Nephila off in another six or seven rounds. He didn't take any chances, watching the spider closely after its delay wore off and it started moving again. She was only queen over a simple two-level dungeon, but she was a boss monster in her own right. He wasn't going to relax and assume that she hadn't been altered since the beta, the same way the floor bosses were.

The queen took a few skittering steps and crunched down with all eight legs.

"She's gonna jump! We have to leap out of the way just before she lands. I'll tell you when!"

The huge spider leaped upward, shaking the very air of the chamber. Once it reached the ceiling and began to fall, he cried out, "Two, one, jump!"

We leaped high as the queen spider fell, the shock wave effect passing harmlessly beneath our feet. Just before he landed, Kirito prepared another sword skill.

In the midst of all the precise judgment and careful observation, he'd completely forgotten that the powerful and trusty elven knight was not a human being, but a programmed NPC.

It shouldn't be possible. An NPC didn't respond to abbreviated commands from a player like this over their preprogrammed algorithms. But nothing about her actions struck me as out of the ordinary.

Gauging the length of battle was extremely hard in a VRMMO, where all the senses were intensely occupied. It was typical to finish up a fight and say, "That was only a minute long?" or "It took us an entire hour?"

So when Nephila Regina, the giant spider queen, exploded with a splashy visual effect and we received our rewards, the first thing I did was bring up my menu to check the time.

Four twenty AM, which meant we'd only spent three minutes on the battle–but more than enough time for Kibaou's group to grow curious about the absence of the boss and come wandering back.

If they did, we could hide with Kizmel's camouflage cape again, but it would be difficult to stay concealed after the monstrous sound of the spider's explosion.

He closed his window and turned to his high-living partners to put a finger to his lips. Fortunately, the dark elves were familiar with the sign to be quiet, and so Kizmel and Asuna lowered their hands. Next he gestured to wait and tiptoed over to the room's entrance. With my back pressed to the wall, he trained his ears on the hallway but didn't hear any approaching voices or footsteps for now.

If it was after four in the morning, when the hell did they leave town? Perhaps they'd been up all night working on the guild quest.

He spent three seconds half-annoyed and half-impressed by the Liberation Squad, but they didn't seem to be coming. They'd probably drawn the notice of some regular spiders near the cave entrance and got stuck in battle. He heaved a sigh of relief and returned to Asuna and Kizmel.

"Doesn't look like Kibaou's group noticed us. They'll probably head back in for the second level to finish their guild quest, so we can slip out once they're past us," he suggested. Asuna agreed but looked puzzled.

"How many minutes does it take for that boss spider to come back?"

"Umm..."

He started to search through his memory banks for that information from the beta, but Kizmel answered first.

"At that size, it will take three hours at the minimum for the cave to generate enough spiritual power to give life to a new ruler."

So Kizmel had her own interpretation for the phenomenon of mobs respawning.

He was tempted to ask how this spiritual energy was different from the magic that had been lost from Aincrad, but this time it was Ainz's turn to head me off.

"With that much leeway, Kibaou's team will have plenty of time to search the second level safely. So we ended up helping them, without them realizing it. That kind of irks me."

"Ha-ha-ha. As they say, 'The forest sees all good deeds, and the insects all the bad.' The Holy Tree will ensure that you are blessed."

"Ah...I see. In the human lands, we say, 'One good turn deserves another.'"

"I shall remember it."

While they chatted, my brain busied itself with practical matters–it would be a pain to have to leave and deliver the emblem to the commander, only to be told to return to fight the boss spider again. But he soon noticed that something dark was gleaming on the ground nearby. It was a gigantic fang that had come from Queen Nephila's mouth. I tapped it just to be sure, and a label appeared, reading QUEEN SPIDER'S POISON FANG.

If everything went properly, we could give the commander the lost scout's insignia, receive the quest to kill the queen, then show him the fang to complete it immediately. He eagerly stashed the fang in his inventory and checked the clock to find that it was past four thirty. Kibaou's team would be back in the second level of the cave by now.

"Well, let's head back to the base camp," Ainz suggested. Kizmel and Asuna both turned and nodded to him at the same time.

They looked totally unalike, especially with Kizmel's dark skin and pointed ears–but despite one being a human and the other an NPC, Kirito couldn't shake the sensation that they were like sisters.

His hopes were rewarded when we made it back to the surface without running into Kibaou. We rushed through the forest to the camp south of us, avoiding battle wherever possible.

By the time the many rippling flags appeared through the thick fog, there was a faint purple glow to the light coming from the exterior edge of Aincrad that spoke of the eventual morning. The predawn chill of mid-December in the real world required a sweater and down jacket, but after the heat of our fierce battles, it felt good on the skin. Of course, any heat or cold coming through the NerveGear was just mental signals.

We passed through the thick magical mist created by the Forest-Sinking charm and into the narrow rock passage to the camp. Only then could we heave sighs of relief and undo some of the heavy equipment.

Kizmel, who had no in-game item storage, remarked with envy on our Mystic Scribing charms, as she called them, and looked to the rear of the camp.

"Kirito, Ainz, Asuna, will you deliver the memento you discovered in the cave?"

"Y-yeah. That's fine..."

"Thank you. The scout who died was of the commander's blood...I do not wish to intrude upon your report. Forgive my selfishness."

He didn't need to ask if she was being reminded about the death of her sister Tilnel. Asuna reached out and brushed the dark elf's arm to soothe her.

"We understand. Don't worry, we'll give the report. What are you going to do next, Kizmel?"

"I will rest in the tent. Call upon me if you should need my services."

And with a weak smile, Kizmel stepped away. With a forlorn chime, one of the HP bars in the upper left disappeared. A small system message accompanied the change, alerting us to the departure of a member from the party.

With a clanking salute, Kizmel left and proceeded back to the right corner of the camp. Kirito glanced over at his partner and, as he expected, saw a mixture of loneliness and unease in Asuna's face.

"Don't worry. She'll join us again, anytime we ask...I think," he reassured her.

But rather than turning on me in anger, Asuna simply said, "...Yeah."

She pulled the hanging hood up over her head, as though shifting gears, and remarked, "C'mon, let's go report on our quest."

The commander of the dark elven advance forces took the leaf- design emblem without a sign of emotion. It seemed that of all the NPCs here, only Kizmel's was anywhere near as advanced as she was, but after spending so much time with her, he couldn't help but imagine there was deep sadness behind the commander's stoic face.

A new quest log scrolled by once Ainz had delivered the item, informing us of a new task: to defeat the spider commanding the nest. Ainz produced the queen spider's fang and set it down on the table.

Fortunately, that fulfilled the requirements, so we were able to complete the second chapter of the campaign quest without leaving on another journey. Still, with ten chapters just on the third floor alone, there was plenty left to do.

We gratefully received our Col, experience, and item–Ainz, Asuna and Kirito chose the magic belt pouch that had a far greater capacity than its appearance suggested–initiated the third chapter of the quest, and left the commander's tent.

The night had fully broken by now, and there were more dark elves milling about the camp, but Kizmel was not one of them. Kirito stopped just outside the entrance to the large commander's tent and turned to my remaining party member.

"...What next? We can call upon Kizmel to join us at any time..." "Hmm..." Asuna looked down in thought, then shook her head. "Let's do that a bit later. I know this sounds weird, but...I think we should give her some time to herself."

"I see. And no, that's not weird. I mean, yes, she's an NPC...but more than that, she's our partner."

"I don't recall ever turning into your partner."

"...Yes, ma'am."

A tantalizing smell came wafting over from the dining tent.

Kirito started to wander off in that direction, but Asuna pulled my sleeve back.

"We have something to do before eating."

"Huh? What's that?"

"Come on, you haven't forgotten overnight. We were supposed to have the blacksmith forge me a new sword once we collected the right materials!"

The equipment in Sword Art Online could be gained in one of three different ways.

First was the kind looted from monsters, whether simple mobs or bosses, also known as "monster drops." When combined with chest drops found in dungeons, this category was "dropped loot."

Next were "quest rewards" earned from completing a quest.

The last category was "shop made," crafted by a player or NPC blacksmith or leatherworker from special ingredients or material items.

In the five weeks since the game began, none of the three categories had proven themselves to be inherently better or worse than the others. Ainz and Kirito's Anneal Blade +6 were quest rewards from the first floor, and Asuna's Wind Fleuret +5 was originally a monster drop. It was likely that as the player population's level rose, the value of quest rewards and NPC-crafted weapons would fall, meaning the best weapons would either be rare drops or player crafted. But that eventuality could be months and months away...or years, though he prayed it didn't come to that.

He trudged along, lost in thought, behind Asuna, her hooded cape flapping in the breeze and Ainz was to her side looking a bit sleepy.

Despite the seven hours of sleep he'd gotten the last night, after the heavy questing in the dark, the advent of the morning sun brought a fresh wave of fatigue down on me. By contrast, the fencer's stride was crisp and spry, so either she was that rarest of types among MMO gamers–a morning person–or she was trying to keep her unease away with the heel of her boot.

"Don't worry, it'll go fine," he mumbled as he rubbed his eyes, barely aware that he'd said it. A few feet ahead, the boots clicked to a halt. He barely stopped myself in time before colliding with her back. A voice made of 70 percent anger and 30 percent something else hit my ears.

"...I'm not worried about anything at all."

Even in his low-functioning brain state, he was aware that he shouldn't cross her right then, so he answered with a simple "Okay." "Anyway, you'd better have saved up enough materials in battle. I don't want to have to go farm for more because we're a bit short," she said, turning back to me. When she spoke next, her voice was softer than before. "It can't always...be like this..." "Huh? Like what?"

"I mean...I can't keep asking you for what kind of materials to make a weapon or how to beat a certain kind of monster. I have to learn how to figure that stuff out for myself."

"Ahh...B-but when I met you in the second-floor city, you knew exactly which monsters dropped which upgrade materials," I replied. Our reunion one week ago seemed like ancient history now. Asuna grinned wryly beneath her deep hood.

"Only because I memorized the details that were important to me from Argo's strategy guide. I don't know anything that isn't written down in a textbook. It's the same as I was before I came here."

"..."

This caught Kirito by surprise. He searched for the right answer but could only shake his head.

"It's the same for me, too. I still have my beta knowledge to go on, but once that runs out, I'm just as lost..."

"You're wrong. The knowledge gained from a book and the knowledge gained from experience are totally different things. The reason I'm so nervous about creating a single weapon is because I've never experienced it before."

Kirito noticed that his sleepiness had worn off by then. Choosing not to point out that she'd admitted she was worried, he kept my face straight.

"Then you can experience things starting now. The most important thing is to survive and keep moving forward...that's all. Use anything you can, as long as it's for that purpose–whether it comes from Argo's books or my brain. Each and every day will bring you more experience...and not the kind that comes in points." Ainz said still half asleep.

The first rays of the sun, pouring in directly from the outer aperture, caught the bottom of the floor above, dyeing it red.

"...Good point. It's the start of another day..." she murmured. Some of the strain had left her voice, to my relief.

Kirito glanced back at her and added, "Also, there's one other thing I forgot to say..."

"Huh?"

"Unlike with weapon upgrading, there's basically no fail state for crafting. So there's really no reason to worry about–"

She cut him off with a punch to his gut just soft enough not to cause damage and growled threateningly, "You could have mentioned that earlier!"

Asuna stomped off angrily enough to break through the hard ground, and he followed at a careful distance until we came to the crafting section of the dark elf camp.

There were four tents laid out along the path, each waving its own identifying flag: item shop, seamstress, leatherworker, and blacksmith. The tents displayed their rarest wares up front, and my heart soared at some of the items unavailable in human territory, but the pricing was rough on the wallet, especially since he'd only just reached the third floor. He walked past the shops with considerable restraint and stopped in front of the blacksmith.

NPC blacksmiths were bearded macho guys as a general rule, but in keeping with the elven theme, this one was a tall and slender man with long hair tied back behind his head. The only visual identifiers that marked him as a blacksmith were the thick black leather apron and elbow-length gloves. But as the excellent smith's hammer in his hand suggested, this fellow's crafting skill was much higher than those found in the main town of the third floor. Now that Nezha of the Legend Braves had converted to a chakram warrior, this elf was the best crafter anyone could hope to visit at this point in the game.

If there was one problem here…

Asuna and I stopped before the tent. The dark elf blacksmith turned his sharp, tanned face upon us, snorted, and returned to his work. He felt a sudden surge of negative energy from beside him, so he pulled the cape sleeve away.

This entire camp was outside of the safe haven zone, so if we did anything criminal, the guards would swarm onto us, beat us to a pulp, and toss us out of the camp–if the tough-looking blacksmith didn't take care of us first.

Fortunately, Asuna chose not to comment on the proprietor's lack of hospitality, throwing a glare at him instead.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" she muttered. He nodded vigorously. There were no guarantees when it came to upgrading, but as he'd said just a minute earlier, absolute failure was impossible when forging a brand-new weapon. Assuming that the crafter had the requisite skill proficiency necessary to create the item, of course.

He let go of the cape, and Asuna took a step forward. She politely asked the elven blacksmith, "Excuse me, can I ask you to forge me a new weapon?"

He replied with another snort, but the special shop menu appeared for Asuna. When dealing with players, the negotiation was usually face-to-face, but sometimes NPCs might not understand the meaning of the players' language, so a menu was provided to facilitate the transaction.

I wondered if the elf blacksmith also considered this window a type of magic charm. Asuna hit the visibility button in the corner of the window so I could see. She was about to push the CREATE WEAPON button with a slender finger, but stopped.

"...Oh yeah. There's something I need to do first," she murmured. A moment later, he realized what she meant.

"It's not a necessary step, though. You can do as you see fit, Asuna."

"I know...But I've made up my mind," she announced and turned away from the shop window to remove the Wind Fleuret +5, in its familiar green sheath, from her waist.

From the battle against the first boss to the trials of the second floor and now here to the third floor, the simple but beautifully designed weapon had served Asuna well. She whispered something to the sword that he couldn't hear, then offered it to the elf blacksmith. She chose to bypass the menu system and make the request herself.

"Please convert this sword into ingots."

He expected the elven blacksmith to respond with a third resounding snort, but instead, he simply held out his hand.

He couldn't possibly understand Asuna's attachment to the weapon, but he did silently take the Wind Fleuret and remove it from its scabbard. The brilliant, mirror-like polish when it was new had faded, but the blade had taken on a deep luster since. The blacksmith inspected the rapier, nodded, and tenderly placed it in the forge behind him.

This was an honest, square brick forge, not the portable kind that Nezha carried around. It didn't have a bellows to power up the fire, but the flames rising from the surface were a mysterious blue green, likely the work of more elvish magic. The fire soon turned the silver blade bright red, and it began to glow from tip to hilt. Asuna clutched her hands over her chest as she watched.

Eventually, the sword flashed even brighter, then dulled, turning into a rectangular block about eight inches long.

When the light had fully subsided, the elf reached over with a gloved hand and picked the block out of the fire, handing it to Asuna. It was a single ingot, gleaming silver in the light of the morning sun. There were countless types of metal ingots in Aincrad, from real materials like iron and copper to fantastical ones like mithril, and even he couldn't identify all of them by sight alone. However, it was clear that Asuna's beloved weapon had turned into a particularly rare and valuable material.

"Thank you very much," she said to the elf, taking the silver hunk in both hands. Asuna held it there for a few moments, as though assessing its weight, then opened her menu and placed it in her inventory. She closed the window, then slid the still-open shop menu over to resume her order.

She hit the CREATE WEAPON button, then hit ONE-HANDED WEAPON, then RAPIER, then SELECT MATERIAL. A smaller window popped up showing all of the eligible materials she possessed, split into categories.

When upgrading weapons, the only requirements were base materials and optional additives, but crafting a new one required a core material: the ingot. We could forge an ingot from the ores we'd collected in the spider cave, but those would be the basic materials in this case.

Asuna didn't need help with this one; she selected a number of materials, leaving for last the core from her Wind Fleuret–which was officially called an Argentium Ingot. Once all the required items were fulfilled, a final YES/NO dialog box appeared, along with the cost of creation.

Asuna gave the blacksmith another glance, thanked him for the work he was about to do, and hit the YES button.

With a swooshing sound, two leather sacks and the brand-new ingot appeared on the work platform next to the blacksmith.

He silently picked up the two sacks, which were filled with the base, and added materials and tossed them into the forge. The sacks burned away, leaving only the materials within, gleaming red.

"I-I don't know about this...He was awfully blunt about doing that," Kirito muttered to Asuna, who sighed in annoyance.

"You're the one who said you couldn't fail at forging a weapon. We just have to trust in the process now."

She's learned a lot about mental toughness since the time we asked Nezha to power up that Wind Fleuret on the second floor, he thought. The truth was, he hadn't told Asuna about one thing. It was impossible to fail entirely at weapon creation–meaning that all of the materials disappeared and no sword appeared in return. But that didn't mean that the results were always fixed. The player chose a type of weapon, but what it looked like and what it was called were a mystery until the process was finished. Essentially, there was a wide range of potential stats for the completed weapon.

But it was impossible for the finished sword to be weaker than the Wind Fleuret it was based on–he hoped. The elven blacksmith might be unfriendly, but his skill was good, we gave him the maximum of basic and added materials, and all of Asuna's sentiment was poured into that ingot. Superstition or not, he believed that even in this world of digital data, that stuff made a difference.

As he pondered over these momentary thoughts, the materials in the fire melted together, turning the flames to a bright white color. The blacksmith tossed the ingot in, and the cold metal block began to sparkle.

Ainz, in an effort to help dived into the RNG code for the sword creation and moved the stats to be more into Asuna's favor, a sword that would work best with her and her style, a sword that carries the love and protectiveness that her Wind Fleuret had.

"Buff, please," came Asuna's voice. He felt the index, middle, and ring fingers of my right hand gripped by a soft palm up to the second knuckle.

Of course, we had no active buff effects, and even if we did, the benefits wouldn't transfer through hand-to-hand contact. But instead of mentioning these things aloud, he simply brushed my thumb against the back of her hand, praying for a good sword to emerge.

The elf paid no mind to our rapt attention. When the ingot was sufficiently heated, he picked it up with his gloved left hand and moved it to the anvil. Smith's hammer spinning in his hand, the elf struck the metal rhythmically, once every two seconds. The clear ringing echoed through the morning air of the camp.

The number of strikes to finish the weapon was directly related to the strength of the finished product. A starter weapon like a Plain Rapier or a Small Sword would only take five swings, less than an upgrade attempt. The Wind Fleuret and others of its level required around twenty blows. Therefore, counting up the number of hits as the process continued was both exhilarating and nerve-racking.

Ten, fifteen. The strikes continued.

Once the number passed twenty, he slowly let out the breath he'd been holding in. This essentially ensured that the sword would be better than the Wind Fleuret.

But once the hammer counted twenty-five, he felt the tension return. He stared closely at the spark-laden ingot, unaware that he was clenching Asuna's hand back.

Ainz however was smiling, as if he knew something they didn't.

Kirito and Ainz's Anneal Blade was a quest reward, but a weapon of a similar quality was worth about thirty strikes.

The blacksmith's hammer breezed past that number, then thirty-five, only stopping after the fortieth hit.

The shining white ingot slowly morphed into a new form: thin, long, sharp, beautiful. With one last flash, there was a gleaming silver rapier lying atop the anvil.

As we watched in silence, the blacksmith grabbed it by the ornately decorated hilt and lifted it up. He ran a finger along the slender blade and, to our surprise, commented on his work.

"...Good sword."

He reached back to a rack stuffed with countless sheaths and pulled out a bright gray one, slid the rapier into it, and handed it to Asuna.

At this point, he realized he was still gripping her hand tight. He hastily let go and shoved his hands into my pockets. She looked at me with a very strange look on her face, then accepted the rapier from the elf and bowed."Thank you very much."

This time, he did snort back.

Asuna grinned and started to hook her new sword to the fastener at her belt, but he grabbed her arm. She looked at me suspiciously, but followed as he pulled her away to an open area within the crafting quarter.

Once he stopped, she tugged her arm out of my grasp and frowned.

"What's the big idea? I got the new sword, safe and sound."

"I-I don't mean to complain about it. Can I just...see it really quick?" he asked, holding out his hand. She pouted but handed over her brand-new weapon.

The instant its dense weight hit my palm, he understood this was no ordinary weapon. He tapped the sword to bring up its properties, and we examined the results together.

At the top was the sword's name: CHIVALRIC RAPIER. That meant...it was a knight's rapier, he supposed. Its current upgrade level was, of course, +0. Next to it was the number of upgrade attempts remaining–fifteen.

"Nu-wha..."

An inexplicable grunt escaped his lips, the only outward sign of emotion, but on the inside, he was screaming, How?! His shock was so great that he felt like he could shoot upward and slam his head against the bottom of the next floor up, then fall back to the ground.

He didn't even need to look at the fine details of attack and speed numbers listed below. Fifteen upgrade attempts was about twice that of their Anneal Blades, which had eight. In the most simple terms, this Chivalric Rapier was twice as strong as my weapon. This was the equivalent of a fifth- or sixth-floor weapon.

It was cause for celebration, without a doubt. A weapon's stats had a direct correlation on the chances of victory–and in fact, "rate of victory" meant nothing here. In a world where any defeat spelled certain doom, every battle must be won. There was no such thing as too much power.

Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. We weren't locked in a stand-alone RPG, but a VRMMORPG.

Looking at her beautiful weapon, with hilt, pommel, and even knuckle guard gleaming silver, he had the premonition–if not dread–that this rapier would change the fate of his partner.

"...What's wrong?"

He snapped back to his senses. Asuna was staring at him, so he hastily shook his head.

"N-nothing...I-I mean, it's not nothing. This sword...is ultra-good."

"Hmm. Ultra?"

"Ultra."

Suddenly, Asuna let out a little giggle. Kirito didn't like being laughed at, but at least it got his mind back on the normal track. He coughed and returned her rapier.

Once she had fixed the gray sheath to her belt, he said, "Um...congrats on getting a new main weapon. If you ask me, your Wind Fleuret is still alive inside of it...but I guess everyone has their own way of seeing it..."

Her grin turned annoyed at the awkward, hesitant finish, but she thankfully did not cut me down with one of her usual barbs.

"Thanks. I agree...I feel like I'll still be able to get by with this new one."

"Ah, c-cool."

"As you probably remember..."

She stopped short, then had a wry expression of pain on her lips when she continued.

"...When I left the Town of Beginnings and headed for the labyrinth, I thought weapons were just disposable tools. I bought tons of those cheap Iron Rapiers, didn't bother with upgrading or upkeep, and just threw them onto the dungeon floor when they lost their edge. But...that was me, in a nutshell. I figured I'd just charge ahead, as far and fast as I could go...until I couldn't go any farther and died..."

She traced the knuckle guard of her new weapon with a fingertip. When she spoke next, it was in drips and drops, as though putting the texture of the silver into words.

"...To be honest, I still don't think I can have much hope. A hundred floors is so long...too long. But...once you two reached out to me, and I got my Wind Fleuret and learned to power it up, I feel like I started changing, bit by bit. Not in the sense of beating the game and getting back to reality, but...taking each day as it comes. Having the hope of surviving each day. And to do that, I need to take care of my sword and armor, and study hard, and so on...I've learned how to do the necessary maintenance on myself!"

"...Your own maintenance..."

Asuna was a beginner, not just to SAO, but any MMORPG at all, and at the present moment, he understood much more about the game than she did. But he felt that she had just taught him something extremely important. He looked down at his hand.

There was probably a part of him that was avoiding thinking about the difficulty of beating the game, despairing that it would never happen. That's why he took on the mantle of beater, distancing himself from the mainstream group of clearers. Kibaou's Aincrad Liberation Squad and Lind's Dragon Knights had far more courage and ambition to look up at the hundredth floor than he did. There was only one reason he continued to fight: to make himself stronger.

Thirty-nine days before, right after Akihiko Kayaba himself descended upon the center square of the Town of Beginnings to herald the arrival of the game of death, he took off running for the next town. But not to get a head start on beating the game. He wanted to get a head start on surviving.

But even he ended up meeting a few others, getting involved, forming relationships.

Argo the Rat, information dealer. Agil the ax warrior. Nezha, the former blacksmith. Even Diavel, who mentally broke against the first-floor boss, Ainz, the genius kid who brought a lot of luck to the party and Kizmel the NPC. And most importantly of all, the fencer before my eyes, Asuna…

He did have a responsibility. A responsibility to continue to fight, for the sake of those he'd met. He couldn't give up and abandon the battle because he was tired of it. The fact that they'd survived along with him was a source of strength and relief.

"...That's right," he said, still staring at his hand. Asuna responded, her voice free of the usual thorns, perhaps even...kindly.

"You have to learn to take care of yourself. When things are hard or sad, it's important to tell someone, rather than holding it all in."

"Uh...y-yeah..."

He looked up and saw a gentle smile on her face.

"And...what will happen if I tell you?"

Without hesitation, she replied, "I'll always be ready to treat you to a piping hot Taran steamed bun."

"Ah...you don't say."

He almost let his shoulders slump at that answer, then reminded myself not to hope for anything better. Plus, those steamed buns were pretty good–as long as you let them cool down first.

"Well, if I ever fail in my upgrade attempt, I'll call on you for a chat session. So anyway, back to the matter at hand," he said, hoping to change the topic. Asuna's ultra-rare smile melted away like a flower of ice in the hot sun.

"Huh? Wasn't the matter at hand how my Wind Fleuret still lives on?!"

"That's right," he noted, pointing to Asuna's new partner. "Not to repeat myself, but that Chivalric Rapier is unbelievably powerful for the third floor. With a bit of upgrading, a single hit from it will easily eclipse the strength of my Anneal Blade plus six. That's a great thing, no doubt, but the question will be, how did you get such a powerful weapon?"

"Umm..."

She paused to think, then turned back to look at the blacksmith's tent, a number of yards away on the other side of the hasty fence that surrounded this cramped space. He followed her gaze–the blacksmith himself was invisible from here, but his lazy clanging reached his ears.

"If you overlook his rudeness, that blacksmith was good at his job, wasn't he? Wouldn't every weapon he crafts be about this good? If you overlook his rudeness."

"W-well...I doubt that's the case. We've had several fights now on the third floor, and the mobs aren't really any different from what I fought in the beta. If all of a sudden you're getting a weapon that's twice as powerful as it should be, the game balance is totally broken."

"So you're saying that maybe the blacksmiths in the main town are the same, but just this dark elf was updated to make better weapons? If you overlook his rudeness."

That couldn't be it, in the beta this had not happened, all of this was just decided by the system and the RNG (Random Number God).

"Wait, where is Ainz?" Asuna asked as she noticed him missing.

"Probably making and upgrading weapons, let's keep going he has a lot of stuff, is crazy but he keeps changing styles a lot, he is not set on a particular weapon, not to mention…"

Kirito was referring to those sword skills that Ainz used but were not in the database that Kirito knew of.

"Ainz is, a bit weird, but he is not a bad person right?" Asuna said sticking for the small kid.

Kirito then remembered the fact that Ainz was more than willing to PK to protect Argo, and even asked her if she wouldn't mind him PKing the one who spread those false rumors of a hidden log out place.

It was then when Ainz exited the tent with a his new sword.

The scabbard was black, made of traditional lacquered wood, and features several metallic ornaments on its far end with a yellow sageo. You couldn't see the blade as it was on the scabbard, but the Tsuka ("handle") had the traditional gold wrapping, with black ornaments, and the Tsuba ("guard") was octagonal.

In his hands he had a bunch of other swords that he put on his inventory, dropping them all.

He had a rather pleased look on him.

"Hey nii-san, you should try him, he does pretty good work" He suggested

He was proposing that we test the dark elf blacksmith, if we overlooked his rudeness, to see if he would create a similarly overpowered sword, but that would require recreating the same conditions as with Asuna's purchase. Not only would Kirito need to provide high-quality base and additional materials, but he'd also need a core ingot made from a powered-up, well-used weapon of his own. Meaning, the Anneal Blade +6 he'd been fighting with for over a month.

In truth, it was nearing the end of its usefulness as his main weapon. If he managed to use both remaining upgrade attempts successfully and get it to +8, it might last him until the fourth floor. But even here on the third floor, there were weapons better than this at +0, some of which were sold right from NPC vendors–they just didn't come cheap.

Ultimately, the Anneal Blade was a quest reward weapon that anyone could earn for themselves. It wasn't on the level of a rare weapon with only a few copies in existence.

And yet, there was a part of him that loved that sword and wanted to keep using it until the very end of its life. It wasn't the specs, appearance, or handling of the weapon. It was the feeling of accomplishment that came with it, when he went straight from the Town of Beginnings to start the quest for this blade, using nothing more than his starter Small Sword. It was the feeling he got when he felt the weight of that new blade, which was nothing like his first sword. Part of the reason he stuck with the One- Handed Sword skill from the beta was knowing that he could get himself an Anneal Blade first thing.

But on the other hand, everything surrounding us had changed since the beta. We had to complete each floor as quickly as possible under the pressure of knowing that we only had one life to lose. The biggest priorities were efficiency and common sense. Personal attachment to items that needed to be replaced was a total waste of time. He even said this very thing to Asuna in the second-floor inn: If we wanted to survive, we had to constantly get new gear. That's what MMORPGs are like…

Looks like this is where we go our separate ways, partner, he told the sword in my item storage.

It was true that we ought to test the dark elf blacksmith's skill level, and it was true that my Anneal Blade would soon be useless. The timing was telling. He gritted his teeth and prepared to acquiesce.

But before he could say anything, Asuna sighed and admitted, "Of course, if you're not up for it, we should call the idea off."

"Uh...huh?"

"Doesn't it seem like that would bleed over into the result? Like, if you didn't want to make a weapon, the finished product might be bad."

"Wha...hey?"

"I mean, I wasn't sure at first, either, but when it came time to make the deal, I was ready. But it's clear from the look on your face that you want to go as far as you can with what you've got now."

"Or would you rather let it fall into the RNG" Ainz said with a smirk.

"Oh wait… that means… Random number… something, right?" Asuna said.

"Close enough"

"Erm...Just thinking, you've really grown as a player. Perhaps it's not true that you only have book smarts without experience..." Kirito thought he was just putting his honest feelings into words, but she gave me an equally weird look in return, then let out a snort the elven blacksmith would be proud of.

"Oh, forget about me for a moment. What's the plan? Going out for more materials?"

"Actually, that won't be necessary."

He grinned and opened his window, scrolling through the item list until be found what he wanted. What materialized was a perfectly ordinary black leather bag with a single brand on the side. Asuna grimaced when she saw it.

"Isn't that the mark of the cow-men from the second floor? It better not be filled with something weird."

"Sadly, it is not."

He closed his window and grabbed something out of the sack. It was a gleaming black metal plate, about one by four inches. The same cattle mark was stamped onto the surface.

"Oh, it's just a metal plank. I don't recognize the color, though...It's not iron or steel," Asuna said, and she was correct. Metal planks were materials smelted from ores collected mostly in natural dungeons. They could be used for upgrading and crafting or combined into a larger, full-sized ingot.

But while this was a plank, it wasn't just any plank. He grinned devilishly and explained the cattle sign.

"This was the Last Attack reward from Colonel Nato in the second-floor boss battle. This one plank will boost the upgrade success rate of any weapon below plus ten to the max, plus it allows you to choose whichever stat you want to boost..."

He could see Asuna's response coming from a mile away.

"You should have said that even earlier!"

The talented (if you overlooked his rudeness) blacksmith greeted us with his usual snort when we returned. We made seven attempts at the maximum of 95 percent success, and all seven were good.

Asuna's Chivalric Rapier was now +5, and my Anneal Blade went from +6 to +8.

Ainz declined, as he did so with his blades already and did not need to do any more.

There were still ten more of the cow-branded planks in the leather sack, but he decided to save them for a rainy day. With the bag back in his inventory, he drew his freshly upgraded weapon, now with four points to sharpness and durability each. There was a fresh, deep shine to the thick blade that gave it a prickly intensity. At this point, it might last to the end stages of the fourth floor, not just the third.

Satisfied, he snapped the sword back into its scabbard, then heard the same sound from next to me. We glanced at each other and grinned confidently. No true swordsman could resist the excitement of a good upgrade.

Her rapier back at her left hip, Asuna cleared her throat and said, "I'm going to pay you back for the five planks, just so you know."

"Well, I only beat Colonel Nato because of your help, and Ainz so you don't need to bother. Either of us could have gotten the LA."

And thus they decided to say their farewells to Kizmel before heading back to the human town, there was a strategy meeting later on.

Chapter end.


	8. Chapter 8

Sword Art Overline

Chapter 8: Evil identified (B/W Concerto part 2 finale)

The heavy mists rolled in, there was nothing to see but a blue-gray haze. Kirito had a solid grasp of the terrain by now, though. He proceeded through the forest, mindful of the presence of monsters, and in less than ten minutes, he reached the familiar staircase leading back down to the second floor.

Bathed in pale moonlight, the stone structure appeared to be empty, but as he drew nearer, a silhouette melted out of otherwise thin air from the shadow of one of the pillars. This player's Hiding skill was on par with Kizmel and her cloak of invisibility.

The person we're meeting grinned, three painted whiskers crinkling beneath her heavy hood.

"Seven seconds late, Kii-boy."

"Sorry. Blame it on the train driver."

Her hood shook ruefully at his earnest attempt at humor.

"I can sell you some better jokes, if you're looking to improve."

"No thanks, I'll manage with what I've got. I hate to rush you, but...did you learn anything about what I asked for?"

"No, I really think you should buy some nii-san, your jokes are… very lame"

"Always the impatient one, you are. The hastiest rats are the ones that don't make it back to the hole."

Our grinning guest hopped up onto a collapsed pillar nearby and crossed her legs. Kirito took a position leaning against the pillar facing her while Ainz sat by her feet.

Argo the Rat was the first, and best, information agent in Aincrad. We'd known her for a long time (if a month counted as "long") but barely knew anything about her personally. He was pretty sure she was a girl, pretty sure she was somewhere between her late teens or early twenties, and pretty sure she was also a beta tester. She collected information from her beta experience, as well as nuggets bought from me and other testers, and compiled them into her own series of strategy guides that she sold through NPC item shops throughout the game. Most important of all to remember was her motto: Any information with a price would be sold.

That meant that if Kirito asked Argo to sell him personal information, like her height, weight, favorite foods, skill layout, and so on, she would do it...as long as he paid the price.

Fortunately, the cost of the information he wanted in this case was quite reasonable. He pulled a five-hundred-col coin out of his coat pocket and flipped it to her.

He was, however, pretty sure she would give it to Ainz for free… if she hasn't already.

She caught the coin nimbly between two fingers. The coin danced along her fingers before disappearing entirely.

"Thankee. I'll tell ya what I know so far." The grin on her whiskered face disappeared, and she continued in a low voice, "Seems like there's only one player who joined up with Lind's Dragon Knights Brigade since reaching the third floor. His name's Morte, he uses a one-handed sword, and he never takes off his metal coif, even in town...That's all I got for ya."

"Morte," he repeated, thinking that it sounded like a type of candy.

"Wait… Morte, that means Death in French" Ainz said looking at Argo.

She grinned and patted Ainz on the head giving him a small pastry.

A man wearing a coif. That had to be the man we saw in Lind's team of five the other day when Kibaou's party was on that spider dungeon.

He was probably a beta tester like him and was feeding Lind information on the campaign quest...Suddenly, he recognized a contradiction there.

"Wait...but at the last strategy meeting, which I assume you were watching, the DKB still had eighteen members, same as during the last boss fight. So if Morte joined, does that mean one person dropped out? And was it voluntary or forced?"

Argo waved his suspicions away.

"Nope, the eighteen at the meeting were the same from the boss battle."

"...Do you know all the names and faces of the DKB?"

"I wouldn't be much of an informant if I didn't. Same goes for the ALS."

"It was silly of me to ask," he said, raising his hands in surrender. "So...Morte just joined up on the third floor but wasn't present at the meeting. And the reason for that is..."

"A mystery to me, 'fraid to say."

"You'd have to ask him or Lind to know why, I guess."

He played back the recollection of the strategy meeting in Zumfut three days ago. It was a clusterFUCK of epic proportions as how Kibaou and Lind wanted to manipulate players into joining, making a rule that if Kirito went to a guild Asuna could not, Ainz had a few… words to show his disagreement. Still he couldn't remember the faces of the other seventeen dressed in blue. Part of it was that he had sat at the very top row of the stadium-style seating, so he could only see the backs of the others present. And halfway through the meeting, most of his mind power was spent worrying about the imminent explosion of anger from Asuna.

Still, it had to be a problem that, forty days after this game started, we were still putting our lives in the hands of other players whose names or faces we couldn't even recall.

He wasn't going to get into the business of selling information anytime soon, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to put more effort into remembering people. It just wasn't a skill that came naturally to him.

Ainz asked Argo, "So nee-chan, how did this Morte character get into the guild?"

"Looks like he requested to join. The day after the third floor opened up, Lind introduced him as a new recruit to the other main members of the DKB guild–well, technically it wasn't a guild yet at that point."

"Ahh...So it was Lind who took his request directly. I'm surprised that Lind would just rubber-stamp him like that. Maybe Morte is just that powerful...How does he seem to you?"

It was just an idle, curious question, but Argo grimaced atop the stone pillar and rocked back and forth.

"The thing is, I haven't seen this Morte fellow for myself yet...I staked out the pub the DKB is using as a base in Zumfut, but I haven't seen anyone who matches the description."

"Wow...If even you can't spot him, he must be trying to hide himself..."

"That's what I think. If it's on Lind's orders, then perhaps he's supposed to be a secret weapon to help them jump past the ALS. I'm sure he'll be involved in the boss battle, so at the very least, I'll check him out there."

"Please do. Well, I've certainly gotten my money's worth of info here."

"Glad to hear it," Argo grinned. She hopped off the five-foot- tall pillar without a sound and raised her hand to her face. The coin he'd paid to her just a minute ago was there in her fingertips, glinting in the moonlight.

"By the way, Kii-boy, any interest in selling some intel?"

"Oh? What kind?"

"Like where you've been staying with A-chan since we got here."

"Sorry nee-chan but we can't neither confirm nor deny that info so due to its dubious nature it wouldn't be any good to sell it I am afraid," Ainz replied immediately.

Argo grinned again.

"I see. Not bad Ainz-bou, you are definetly learning."

"I have the best nee-chan as a teacher, is there any doubt?" Ainz said with a smile.

Argo twirled her small curl at the bit.

We trudged back into the forest, shoulders slumped. Every once in a while, Kirito stopped to open his window and ensure that we was moving in the right direction–in the last four days, we'd mapped almost 90 percent of the forest.

Getting back to the dark elf camp didn't require a map by now, but that wasn't our destination. He set down coordinates in the center of the Forest of Wavering Mists, which covered the southern half of the floor, and made my way carefully for them. We were not heading for the town of Zumfut or the queen spider's cave but the large forest elf camp to which the imposter soldier had fled. He couldn't bemoan his carelessness now; this was the real point of thuis night expedition.

He had experienced "Infiltration," the sixth quest of the campaign, during the beta. To complete it, he had to steal a scroll of orders from the forest elf camp. In it were top-secret commands from the leader of the forest elves, who was situated in their home base at the north end of the forest. Having done it before, he knew the contents of that "top secret" mission: to use a disguising charm and steal the Jade Key from the dark elf base. If that mission failed, the agent was to wait for reinforcements and lead an assault on the base…

In the beta, he was in a party of four with another four hired dark elves, and we led a midnight assault on the camp, killing all the enemy soldiers to steal those orders. If he tried to complete this quest with Asuna, Kizmel, Ainz and some of the soldiers from the base, we would probably have to use the same method.

But now, he felt a strong resistance to that idea. He didn't want to force Asuna and Kizmel to kill a number of forest elves in their sleep, even if they were our foes. Ainz however was all in board with that idea, he said it was, and quote, "the most pragmatic thing to do".

He knew that was an illogical, meaningless, emotional reaction. And it was easy to imagine that if we completed the quest on our own and informed Asuna of that fact, she would be furious.

He could have explained it all to her, attempted to convince her. But Asuna–and likely Kizmel as well– would have resisted his request that she stay back at the base. And the way he intended to beat the quest was only possible alone, or in this case with the help of Ainz who did not shy from this.

His idea was not to steal it by the sword. He was going to sneak into the camp by himself with tactical backuo from Ainz and take it through stealth, Ainz could play distraction or exfiltrate him if worst came to worst.

Now that a single fatal mistake was permanent, and he couldn't just revive himself at Blackiron Palace, it was the height of stupidity to take such a risk on nothing more than an emotional reaction. Even worse, this quest had no bearing on clearing this floor and furthering the ultimate goal of freedom.

But even if he hadn't teamed up with Asuna on the second floor and had ventured alone with Ainz on the third floor instead–which easily could have happened on a whim–he would still be tackling this campaign quest alone. He'd have to complete the quest to steal the orders as a solo player anyway. He had plans. Based on the title of "Infiltration," one assumed that the quest had been designed for a player to beat it without drawing their sword. By the end of the beta, the orthodox strategy was for a player with a good Hiding skill to sneak in and do the job alone. At this point in time, his level and skill proficiency was far above what the quest required.

On the other hand, there was no guarantee he wouldn't cause an accident of some kind and be forced to fight the entire camp on his own.

But after the week and five days he'd spent with Asuna on the last two floors, he understood that his personal values were shifting.

In the past, he cared for nothing but effective mob farming, quick quest completion, and maximum money and experience gain. That was what he needed to tackle the ultimate goal of winning his freedom–fixed parties and the background stories of quests were extraneous fluff that only got in his way.

But what if there was something here just as important as efficiency? He couldn't express what that thing might be in words yet. But here he was, hiking through the woods at night alone with the small kid in tow, for that mysterious sake. Something he treasured enough to open myself to incredible risk.

Despite being lost in thought, he managed to travel over a mile without drawing the attention of any nocturnal mobs and arrived at our destination just before one o'clock.

The forest elf advance camp was located atop a hill looking over a river that ran through the Forest of Wavering Mists from east to west. There was only one entrance to the semicircular fence that surrounded the camp. There were guards manning the entrance, of course, and his Hiding skill was woefully inadequate to sneak through without detection. He might be able to bump the Hide Rate number a bit with Kizmel's Mistmoon Cloak, but from what she told me, it did not work quite as well against other elves. He supposed that was why the forest elves had to use disguises to sneak into the dark elf base–a similar invisibility cloak would not have done the trick.

So infiltration via the entrance was off the table. The brittle fence, made of dead, whitened wood, would split with a deafening crack when pushed against, so climbing was not an option either. But as a proper beater, he knew the way in, of course. If he descended to the river a safe distance away from the camp and snuck along the waterside, he could position himself just below the tent with the item we needed. There was a sheer cliff over twenty feet tall from the foot of the canyon to the top of the hill, but there were roots conveniently placed just so an opportunistic climber could scale the wall, as long as he wasn't outfitted in heavy armor–theoretically.

If he managed to pull this off, he could sell that nugget of info to Argo for the second volume of her Elf War guide. Lind's guild (as Diabel was still a mess according to rumors) were the only other people attempting the campaign for now, but the information would be very useful to those who wanted to catch up to the frontline team.

We circled the hill from the south to the west and found a relatively gentle slope that would take me down to the foot of the cliff. Kirito stared out at the pleasantly gushing river, spotting the occasional shadow of a large fish beneath the surface. He was in the mood to fish one up and salt grill it, but he didn't have the Fishing or Cooking skills. He had Ainz scold him for getting distracted during a mission. He steadily slipped along the rocky shore.

After about ten yards along the water, aided by nothing but a pale sliver of moonlight, we came to a dead stop. It felt like someone was watching us. Ainz scanned the surroundings, but there was no silhouette of man, beast, or insect, either in front, behind, or above. The idea that one could "feel" someone's gaze was even more impossible in Aincrad than in real life. Detecting other players and moving objects in the game required direct visual, auditory, or olfactory signals from the NerveGear. It was absolutely impossible for me to notice that someone was watching.

"There **is** someone watching us, he is waiting for us, but has not yet noticed the two of us… you backtrack and I will deal with this, I was reading the quest log enough to know the lore of this quest and what is in play… let's see what I can get from him push him for info and if necessary I will lead him to some high level mobs on a train" Ainz said.

Kirito frowned, but it would be wise to do so, if this player was camping he was hoping for a beta player to be here and not a noob like Ainz (tough his combat ability surpassed Kirito's own due to his own flexibility in tactics) and would be caught flat footed.

Ainz stared hard at the spot, wide-eyed. After the cursor, he saw the dark gray of scale mail. It did not appear to be metallic but close-fitting scales that clung to his torso and gleamed wetly. His gloves and boots were made of the same material. A longsword hung at his left hip. And dangling from his head to his shoulders, a fine, chain mail coif…

"...You," he growled.

It was him. The man he'd saw in Lind's party three days earlier in the discussion that nearly broke Nii-san and nee-san appart. The newest member of the DKB, who he'd just learned was named Morte.

But why would he be here in the middle of the night, all alone?

No.

There was something more important than that. Morte was hiding–and he stayed hidden as Ainz entered the canyon.

Hiding itself was not a crime. He did the exact same thing when Kibaou's party passed by in the queen spider's dungeon. But Morte did not happen to be here and then hastily hid when he noticed him coming. If that was the case, he'd have noticed him first, thanks to the Search Distance Bonus mod he earned at skill level 50–or at the very least, we'd have detected each other simultaneously.

No, Morte had been hiding here all along. He expected someone to come through this passage at the foot of the hill behind the camp.

It was due to Ainz's 6th digital sense that he even spotted something wrong as the data around was clammed in a certain area, the player data gave him up.

Someone who had to be pursuing the Elf War quest, on the side of the dark elves.' Only three people on the third floor currently fit that description: himself, Kirito and Asuna.

He was waiting for us. Thankfully Ainz had asked Kirito to go back.

Pure, righteous fire must have poured out of his eyes in that moment of understanding. Just twenty feet away, his right hand twitched.

But in the next instant, a bright, cheery voice that was completely out of place broke the silence.

"Welp, looks like I got spotted!"

Just a bit louder, and his voice would have been audible in the camp above. He lifted his fish-scale gloves and made a show of pretend applause without actually making a clapping noise.

"Pretty good job. I've never been revealed like that at this distance, in this kind of darkness. And you totally spotted me on a sheer hunch, not with your eyes at first, right? You don't have some kind of Sixth Sense extra skill, do you?"

His voice contained both a playful, boyish innocence and a grating theatricality, he didn't know he was actually right, in a sense.

He was about 3 heads over his height and size, but he couldn't see his face due to the coif that hung down to his nose.

Upon closer look, the border of that metal hood was torn and ragged, with fine tendrils of chain that hung down like locks of hair. It was probably just the design of the item, not a sign of wear and tear, but it looked creepy all the same.

"You're Morte from the DKB?"

He had been using reasonably polite speech, so Ainz figured he could have stood to return that level of courtesy, but he wasn't in the mood after learning that he'd been trying to spy on them. The man didn't seem to be bothered by his brusque response. He did the show of fake applause again.

"You get your info quick for not hanging around the town at all. Yep, the name's Morte. Guess you could say naming's not my forte, ha-ha-haaa."

Ainz recoiled a bit at his slimy evasion of my curiosity. He'd never run across someone of his type in SAO. Klein had been a breezy, lighthearted kind of guy before the game turned deadly, but compared to him, this Morte fellow was totally inscrutable.

He bowed politely, dangling chains jingling. Ainz took a step toward him.

"I don't suppose I need to introduce myself. Seems clear you were hiding with the expectation that I'd pass through the area."

"Ha-ha, why, you make it sound like I was waiting to ambush you, Ainz," he said casually, indicating that he knew my name. There was a wide grin on his face, but as usual, he couldn't see his eyes.

"...Was it on Lind's orders?" Ainz asked with flinty eyes.

"Ha-ha-ha, y'know, he's got potential, I'll admit. But no, this was my decision. I mean, Lind's not a beater; he just wouldn't understand. How could he know that you'd pass by this river to sneak into the camp? But that begs to question, how did **you** know about it? I would have thought **he** would be here too"

"But you did know...which means you were a beta tester."

"Just call me a beater. It's a stupid nickname, but that's what I like about it. Did you know that 'beater' is the name of a kitchen implement in English? Like for beating eggs. Makes you want to whip everything in this game up into a froth, ha-ha-haaa!"

Even at low volume, his bubbly voice was crystal clear, and he remained steadfastly polite. So why did he find it all so annoying?

Ainz took a step back, intending to demonstrate that he would not put up with his silly chatter without a point.

"If you were waiting for me, then get to the point. As I know you're aware, I've got a quest to complete."

"Gosh, this Elf War quest really takes me back. I hear that only like three people managed to complete the whole quest line in the beta, including **him**. I ran out of time before I could finish."

Morte held up his hands in panic as Ainz started to turn his heel. "Whoa, hang on, friend. I'll tell you what I want. What I'm asking for."

"...Asking for?"

"That's right. Look, here's the deal: I'm asking if you can forget about this quest and turn back."

He stared at him in stunned silence, then shrugged his shoulders just as theatrically as he had earlier. "You know I'm not going to turn back now. And what does it have to do with you? The DKB's working the forest elf side of the campaign, right?"

One of the basic rules of the Elf War quest was that each party proceeded individually. The main bases of either side were instanced maps, and it was impossible for Party A completing quests on the dark elf storyline to somehow disadvantage Party B as they worked the forest elf story. Yes, the individual quests sometimes overlapped at non-instanced locations, such as the spider cave earlier and this camp now, so that multiple parties could be in the same place at the same time. But with a bit of waiting, everyone could complete their goals safely. Besides, Lind's team was on the forest elf side, so they wouldn't even get the quest to steal the commander's orders.

So whether we completed this quest or not, it would have no effect on Morte or the DKB.

Then it hit him.

"You bastard" Ainz said as he realised something.

He was with Kibaou when they reached the 3rd floor exploring that dungeon, and then joined Lind… they both had an argument about guilds and that if Asuna and Kirito joined a guild both should not be in the same one.

Neadless to say Ainz ripped them both a new one and told them to quite literally to fornicate with a cactus.

This made Asuna and Kirito look at him I shock at this was the first time they actually heard Ainz use foul language.

"I…. I watch a lot of South Park" he had said as a weak apology.

Anyways it was due to the high handed attempts of Lind and Kibaou to control players that Kirito and Ainz were here on their own.

But this discussion had to have a beginning.

"Actually, it is my business. I'm afraid I can't actually explain how it is, though. I mean, if I could do that, I wouldn't have been hiding, would I? Ha-ha-haaa."

"...What?" Ainz nearly overlooked the menace hidden within his statement. His eyes narrowed. "You're saying...that you weren't hiding in order to call out to me and negotiate...but to interfere and stop me by force?"

"Why, that would be silly of me. I mean, I'd get tagged as an orange player if that was the case. That'd be an awful easy way to get kicked out of the guild I just joined, ha-ha-haaa," he said, waving his hips back and forth. But the menace returned with his next statement.

"The thing is, I won't get flagged just for performing a song, see? I really like singing, you understand. If they had karaoke in one of these towns, I'd be hanging out there all the time."

...What are you...? Ainz wondered, eyes narrowed. Then he understood.

Morte was threatening to cause a racket as he was trying to (to him) infiltrate the camp. The dozen or so elven warriors sleeping in their tents would immediately burst out, ready to fight. If Kirito was spotted by that many foes at once, it would be difficult to escape. If they were unlucky, and they surrounded us…

Ainz smiled.

"I see… that makes sense, but you did not take something into account" Ainz said as he made the system place 6 darts coated with high paralysis poison and changed the attributes for speed and accuracy to be times 2 for speed and hit ratio at 100% between his knuckles, then loaded the animation motion to throw them from within the system.

"I don't have to take orders from you… you 2nd rate PKer" he said as he launched all the darts.

( _if object weapon dart x 6 = range weapon + paralysis poison at 40% chance to inflict status change, calculate current variables in x,y,z coordinates, calculate object=player= Morte stats + weapon and armor modifiers, calculate potential ricochet angles to hit, position object= darts to dead angles of player=Morte at 100% hit rate, calculate object weapon = dart speed and all possible angles to maximize critical hit)_

It was cheating of the highest order, he had basically made it so Morte could not be able to avoid, parry or block this attack.

Morte smirked, he was not phased that he was discovered nor at the sudden attack.

"Not bad, but who they will believe? A brat like you or me?" he said with confidence as he was set to block Ainz speedy dart volley.

He did not expect for the darts to hit one another and change trajectory in mid flight.

Ainz was pushing the physics and collision engine of the game to the limit with this stunt.

One dart hit him on the neck, the other on the leg and the other on his chest, right in the small gaps in his scale armor.

His eyes widened, he had been inflicted with paralysis debuff.

Ainz got out of the water body and rushed at him, he put his knee on the middle of his back and pressed down his weight while holding his arm.

He tried to yell in pain and to ruin the quest but was unable due to paralysis currently in effect.

Ainz could tell the sheer hate he had for him, it was palpable and made no effort to hide it.

"Are you the one who put Nezha up to that scam?" Ainz asked.

He growled in defiance but it was no use, he wouldn't talk if his defiant smirk was anything to go by.

Ainz decided to hack his character data and rip his data log.

Since this was a VRMMORPG text chat was no longer used but actual voice chat.

Since some people would no doubt sexual harass women the creators decided to record and compress all player audio data, just in case.

Ainz ripped those logs from Morte's own code.

Morte was not sure what was going on but he felt a 'pressure' in the core of his avatar.

Ainz had then found something more than what he was originally looking for.

He was going to set both Kirito and him up as people who were trying to sabotage the efforts of the 2 guilds and then play both guilds against each other in order to further slow down progress.

"You bastard!" Ainz said. "So that was your aim"

He pulled his new katana sword and was going to impale him on the spot and PK him.

He was dangerous, too dangerous.

He didn't care at all he just wanted to enjoy chaos for chaos sake.

He wanted to see the world burn.

Morte showed an eager and manic smile and pulled something out.

"Teleport Zumfut" he said with haste as he teleported flipping Ainz the bird.

Ainz tskd but he had managed to uncover a lot.

Now Ainz had a clue.

It was a name that appeared a lot on the log of this Morte guy.

PoH.

It was then Ainz begun to pay for his hubris.

In using such a complex system manipulation there would be a feedback when it normalized.

It was a sharp pain.

He wanted to yell, but instead he put his small fist into his mouth to muffle the sound he couldn't let this quest be ruined like this

It took several minutes but the waves of pain passed and then wrote a PM to Kirito.

'Oly Oxen Free'

Kirito made it back, after asking Ainz for clarification he said it was a Beta player, a beater, like Kirito himself.

Not only that but he was waiting for him and Kirito, but more specifically for Kirito.

He explained that he was part of a group of players that refused to allow players to progress and spread chaos for the sake of it.

He also mentioned how he wanted to sabotage the mission to get both guilds on each other troughs.

They managed to get deeper into the infiltration area… just a bit more.

"Who are all of you?!" a voice bellowed, and we froze in alarm.

Did one of the night guards spot us?

Even when we are dozens of yards from the camp?

Ainz and Kirito instinctively leaped to to their respective right to hide against the bottom of the cliff. Ainz looked around wildly but didn't see any red enemy cursors.

Next, Kirito realized that the voice had come from quite a long way away. Besides, why would he say "all of you"? So...what did it mean?

Kirito slowly rose, popping his head just a bit over the lip of the rising cliffside and staring at the foot of the circular hill.

On the opposite end of where he was hiding, at the entrance of the path that wound up the hill from the south, we noticed a number of silhouettes. There was a series of shouts that we couldn't make out. It seemed like two groups of five or six were facing off.

It was probably teams of dark elves and forest elves–perhaps another battle event, like the one that started the "Jade Key" quest. But as far as Kirito knew, the "Infiltration" quest didn't involve anything of the sort.

Curious, he stared harder at the grouped figures. His Search skill kicked in and brought the distant sight into sharper detail, as well as summoning a number of color cursors, barely thicker than tiny strings.

A groan left his throat when he recognized the color of the cursors.

"Wha...?"

They were all green.

Both groups were players.

"Damn it… that guy tended an preemptive ambush in case his primary objective failed" Ainz muttered. "Now we have 2 groups of idiots to deal with"

The large forest elf camp at the top of the hill was not an instanced map generated only for players in the middle of a quest, so it was perfectly plausible for multiple parties to find themselves there at the same time. In addition to that, it was also possible for them to get into a fight over who was allowed to finish their quest first.

But with only a few dozen players this far ahead in the game, the odds of that happening were slim, and as far as Kirito knew, Asuna, Ainz and himself and the DKB were the only people following the Elf War questline at the moment. Was this some kind of internal squabble in the DKB?

He didn't want to get any closer, but even in the few seconds he watched, the two groups were getting visibly heated. If they raised any more noise, the elf warriors atop the hill would notice and be on alert. Reluctantly, he climbed over the lip of the cliff, feeling it necessary to get a better idea of what was happening.

We were at the western edge of the hill, a semicircle protruding to the south. The dozen or so players were congregated at the southern end. There were only a few bushes at best for cover in the straight line between us, so we couldn't approach directly. Our best bet was to head into the forest surrounding the hill and swing to the southeast, avoiding the gnarled roots and shrubs along the way.

Thanks to our recent life in the forest, we managed to circle around to our destination in less than a minute without tripping over any roots. The massive trees at the lip of the hill were ideal for hiding, so we hugged the back of a particularly thick trunk and Kirito activated his Hiding skill before peering around.

A small path ran east and west at the foot of the hill, and branched north to climb toward the camp. At that T-intersection–actually an upside-down T from our perspective–the two groups glared at each other.

There were six on the east side, while on the west side there were over ten. If this was DKB infighting, this had to represent about the entire guild.

Based on what we could see by the dim moonlight, they hadn't drawn their swords yet. But some of the members did have hands on the hilts of their weapons, and there was raw anger in the open air. The furious shouts and insults from before had stopped, but the mood seemed even more tense because of it.

One of the players from the east side of the intersection stepped forward. His long hair was tied behind his head, and a slender scimitar was strapped to his waist–this was clearly Lind, leader of the Dragon Knights Brigade. We could only see his silhouette from our position, but it seemed like the angular outline of his face was even more tense than usual.

Lind stared at the opposing party and spoke quietly. "There's no use continuing to argue about this. We reached this point first. As the rules state, we have the right to proceed with this quest before you."

It felt like a very stuffy, formal statement for an internal argument. And sure enough, another man leaped out from the other group, jabbing an accusatory finger at Lind.

"First? Ya only beat us by a couple seconds at best!"

–!

Kirito nearly gasped in astonishment but closed his mouth just in time.

"Those idiots, they are all being played like puppets, maybe I should have become the manipulator instead… make things easier for us" Ainz muttered.

Kirito actually found himself agreeing.

That morningstar-like spiked hair, longsword on his back, and aggressive Kansai dialect. It could be none other than Kibaou, leader of the Aincrad Liberation Squad.

Which meant the dozen or so players across from Lind's half dozen were the ALS. But why were they here?

Kibaou's next outraged below halfway answered that question.

"And whaddaya mean, rules? If you made 'em up yourself, we don't gotta play along! We've got ta beat this assault quest, too, no matter what it takes!"

Beat this assault quest.

The words were loud and clear. So the ALS were on the Elf War campaign, too–and on the dark elf side, to boot. But during the field boss battle that day–well, the day before–the ALS members had seemed disinterested in the campaign when he'd asked around about it.

That left two possibilities. Either all members of the guild were ordered to keep quiet about it, or they'd started the campaign yesterday afternoon and reached the sixth chapter already in just twelve hours.

We couldn't believe the latter. The "Jade Key" quest was over in the span of a single battle, but "Vanquishing the Spiders," "The Flower Offering," "Emergency Orders," and "The Missing Soldier" couldn't all be completed in half a day without the presence of someone who truly knew what they were doing...perhaps a former beta tester taking the lead…

Which they had.

Yes, the ALS had a member who fit that profile, too.

Morte, the coif-wearing man, who'd traded blows with Ainz just minutes before, a little ways down the river. He'd hidden his face and switched his weapons in order to slip into both guilds. If he was the guide for the DKB, nothing said he couldn't do the same for the ALS.

So had Kibaou beseeched Morte for assistance in order to blaze through all the quests in the campaign up to this point? But he was steadfast in his stance not to associate with former testers. Why would he ignore that philosophy so suddenly?

Confused, he watched the two leaders face off. Now it was Lind's turn to lose his cool.

"Whether it's quests or hunting grounds, first come, first served is the obvious way of things! If you're going to be the leader of a guild, you've got to follow your good conscience, Kibaou!"

At this haughty, sweeping statement by Lind's standards, Kibaou flashed his canines in a snarl.

"Conscience? You're gonna talk ta me about conscience, Lind?" He crossed his thick arms and leaned back, staring up at Lind's face with menace in his eyes. "Well, I got a bone to pick about that. Ever since we got here, you been hidin' the fact that this elf quest is crucial ta heatin' the floor boss!"

Wha–?!

Kirito clamped his mouth shut before the startled exclamation could burst out of it and into the virtual night air.

Certainly, proceeding through the campaign carried its own rewards, such as money, experience, and loot, but it certainly wasn't necessary to beat the boss. The chamber door in the labyrinth tower would open whether the quest was active or not, the boss was available to fight, and if defeated, the way to the fourth floor was open. At least, that's how it was in the beta...but it was also that way on the first two floors in the retail game. And even if it had been changed for the third floor, nobody here could possibly know that for a fact yet.

But Kibaou continued his rant, full of the righteous anger of one absolutely convinced of his facts.

"You remember what happened five days ago. The raid nearly got wiped out 'cos we didn't know the boss cow had turned inta three. That same trap's been laid here on the third floor. Some trap that's gonna do us in if we ain't cleared the elf quest and got whatever items it gives out. You knew it was true, and ya didn't say a word of it during that strategy meeting! So where's your conscience now, huh?"

"...N..."

No! He had to prevent himself from screaming, right along with Lind.

At the very least, none of the quests in the campaign he completed on the third floor in the beta had any bearing on the floor boss. It was possible that the rewards had been altered since then, but the only ones who could confirm it were those who'd completed all ten chapters available on this floor, and it was unthinkable that anyone could have done that much in just four days. It was one thing to rush through the early quests, but the ninth and tenth were long affairs that required an entire day to complete.

Which meant this hypothetical life-saving item Kibaou was talking about was probably false info someone had maliciously fed him. And he had a bad feeling he knew who would do that…

"No! I don't know what you're talking about!" Lind shouted, breaking Kirito out of his thoughts. He focused on the scene ahead of me, and even from this distance, he could make out the folds on his brow as he glared back at Kibaou. "The DKB have only been doing the campaign quest for the experience and rewards! I didn't mention it because there was no reason to bring it up!"

"Hah! And the rewards are items we'll need to beat the boss, no doubt!" Kibaou shot back, leaning forward and meeting Lind's gaze furiously. "You just wanna call the shots for all the frontline players, that's all! Well, I ain't gonna let you tell me the rules. We're goin' first, so wait here like good lil' boys!"

Kibaou turned forcefully toward the hill, but Lind's hand caught his shoulder. Instantly, the guild members behind both men bristled.

"Wait, don't do this! Maybe you're not aware of this, but these key spots disappear once someone completes the quest, only to reappear elsewhere at random. If we wait here, we won't be able to finish the quest after you!"

At this, Kibaou reached out and grabbed Lind's shirt at the chest. "This is what I mean about you not sharin' details! What you're sayin' is that if you do the quest first, we don't get to do it!"

"As is our right for being the first to the camp!"

"And I'm tellin' you, I ain't followin' your rules! If you want, we can set up some rules that make this whole kit and caboodle real simple!"

"...And what do you mean by that?"

...Oh no.

They were both absolutely furious. Shivata in the DKB might be able to step in before things got truly dangerous, but there was no officer with a similarly cool head on the ALS side.

We certainly couldn't improve the situation by trying to interfere now. But what options were available to defuse this perilous situation? He gritted my teeth hard.

Suddenly, Lind's words from just moments ago replayed within my head.

These key spots disappear once someone completes the quest.

From what I heard later, Kibaou and Lind stood there holding the other, neither backing down an inch, and all eighteen players present nearly ended up in a footrace up the hill to see who could ransack the forest elf camp first.

As allies of the forest elves, the DKB were supposed to deliver supplies from the home base to the captain in charge of the camp. But the ALS, working the dark elf storyline, needed to steal the commander's orders, the same as me.

Meaning that if both guilds charged in at once, the dozen-plus forest elf warriors in the camp would be friendly NPCs to the DKCB but powerful (yet not as much as elite types like Kizmel) monsters to the ALS. If that happened, Lind's party of six would witness an open battle between Kibaou's dozen and the forest elves.

How would the DKB react?

The most sensible reaction would be to ignore the allied NPCs and deliver the supplies to the captain, thus completing the quest. It wasn't clear if the camp would simply vanish on the spot as soon as the quest ended, or if the captain would even be able to accept the supplies if he was stuck in combat, but at least that would do as little damage as possible to the frontline group as a whole.

But depending on the mental state of Lind and the DKB, the worst was also possible: siding with the forest elves and turning their swords on the ALS.

If the six DKB members joined with the dozen or so forest elves, their power would be about equal to the twelve ALS warriors. Since they weren't going to calmly challenge each other through the duel system, players on either side would turn into orange criminal players. At that point, there would be no stopping the infighting. We might be on the verge of the first top player killed since the first-floor boss battle...and at the hands of another player. If that happened, the frontline clearers would never again be a unified group.

Fortunately, that dire outcome for the state of our advancement in the game was avoided at the last moment.

Just as Kibaou and Lind began to climb the hill, each trying to push the other back, the elf camp simply disappeared, as though by magic–though according to SAO's story, it probably was elven magic.

The two guild leaders and their sixteen followers, all comically locked in place in sprinting poses, stared dumbfounded at the top of the hill.

Eventually, a single player came trotting down the moonlit path. The moment they saw the face of the player who'd just beaten both guilds to the punch and completed the quest in the camp, no doubt that all present had one thought on their minds.

Not him again.

Faced with eighteen pairs of eyes,

Kirito was much less comfortable than

He let on. Ainz however had a smile akin of a cat that had just caught a rather large and fat canary.

As soon as Ainz made up his mind to beat them to the quest and prompted Kirito, we took the following actions.

Kirito ran back through the forest the way he'd come, only several times faster, then sped along the river until he was directly beneath the camp. From there, he scrambled up the twenty-foot cliff. Once inside the camp, made his way around the preset guard routines and snuck into the captain's tent. Careful not to wake the sleeping leader in the back, he snatched the sheet of orders off the table in the center of the tent. Once out in the open again, he retraced his steps around the guards and descended the cliff behind the camp.

It sounded simple when put like that, but if he hadn't learned the details from someone else during the beta test, he would certainly have been spotted in the process. Once he set foot back down on the riverside mud and the quest log updated, he nearly fell to the ground with relief.

It was also good that Ainz carried a LOT of darts and sleeping poison, it was very effective when a guard spotted him.

Ainz made the same to the two guards at the front and then posted then in alert, while unconscious, in order to not set anyone in camp into alert.

A part of Kirito wanted to just slip away and return to the base. But if he was going to help avert disaster between the DKB and ALS, he couldn't just spirit the camp away and leave. It had to be made clear to all that someone had completed the quest–or as good as completed, since it wasn't official until we reported to the dark elf commander.

So we climbed back up the cliff again, where the entire camp was vanishing in a poof of green light. Anyone else who wanted to finish the "Infiltration" quest or deliver supplies to the forest elf captain would have to find the camp in its new, randomized location, following the new marker on their maps. No matter where it appeared, there would be a way to sneak in the rear, but this cliff-climbing location was the only one he knew well. Even Argo the Rat would have a difficult time providing detailed maps for this part of her strategy guide series.

We crossed the hilltop, now bare of even a single fence, and descended the path to the foot of the hill.

Stopping a slight distance away from the stunned looks of the two guilds, Kirito opened his window to check the time. It had taken just under five minutes to steal the commander's orders, traversal time included. Meaning that Lind and Kibaou had spent at least that much extra time trying to convince the other of his logic since we left the scene. Sadly for them, that effort had gone to waste.

Window closed and hands in his pockets, I tried to put on as casual an attitude as he could.

"Sorry, we just finished this quest. You'll have to look for the camp elsewhere. Blame yourselves for being so pathetically idiotic"

That did not come from Kirito.

Ainz waved around with a smirk on his face.

Lind's face went pale, while Kibaou's only grew darker. By the light of the moon, it was hard to tell which of them was angrier.

As he might have suspected, the first to speak was Kibaou, he of the blinding rage against all former beta testers.

"...No wonder I ain't seen ya around. The little beater boy was busy with the campaign. And just like this fool with the topknot, you knew we needed a quest reward ta beat the boss and didn't see fit ta tell anyone." Kibaou elbowed one of his DKB cohorts out of the way and glared back and forth at me and Lind. "In the end, y'all don't give a fig for rescuin' all eight thousand folks trapped in this game; that's all secondary to ya. Yer only among the top players so y'all can get your weapons and items and lord it over the rest of us, nothin' more. Yer just like all the other beaters what up an' vanished from the Town of Beginnings on the very first day. You ain't got the right to pretend yer inheritin' Diavel's lead!"

He'd been keeping his volume low prior to this, but now that the camp was gone, all restraint went out the window. As Kibaou's torrent of rage spilled forth, the ALS members at his back shouted encouragement and called Lind a cosplay freak.

The taunts about Diavel's will and cosplay were aimed squarely at Lind, who had dyed his hair blue in honor of the fallen knight. Even after he'd snuck in and nicked the quest from under their noses, their rage was still focused on the DKB.

"Shut the hell up spikey"

A cold cruel voice said.

Kibaou looked at the source.

"I keep hearing beta players this, beta players that… but yet you and Lind both came to this place, something not yet out on Argo's strategy guide, yet for some reason you 2 idiots are doing the same polar opposite quests, this isn't something you can just stumble into or solve in the many hours you guys spend, and are too stupid to see what is in front of you" Ainz said.

"Listen brat, I am tired of you talking like that to me, I am your elder and I deserve respect!" he said glaring at Ainz.

"Then give me something to respect"

"W-what?" Kibaou had not expected this.

"You two, as leaders of Guilds have to set an example to others, you have to say, plan and consider everything not once, not twice but 5 times before taking a plan of action, what you do will have consequences that will be far reaching, fighting over this kind of thing… does it really matter WHO has so and so item in the end if it will still be used to beat this game? And Lind… your boss is alive not because I thought I should save him, he has his own dirty secret of his own… isn't that right Kibaou?" Ainz said with a cruel smirk.

"W-what do you mean I-I don't know anything"

"Under Diabel orders you were to buy his Aneal Blade, am I wrong?" Ainz said.

His eyes burrowed deep into Kibaou's own, his pupils dilated slightly.

"Did you not think of it odd of him doing that?" Ainz asked.

"I dunno… he gave me the money to buy the blade and I could sure use that weapon"

"Doesn't it strike you as odd that he charged the monster on his own when other people were around?"

Lind and Kibaou gritted their teeth "What are you-"

"I got curious about our Raid leader you know? So I decided to see how his character is and thus I followed him, he had a secret meeting with info-neechan in a church… a confessionary booth, ironic really, but it was what I heard that made me save him" Ainz said.

Both groups looked at him with rapt attention.

"He wanted to set Kirito as a scapegoat of player's hate to hide the rest of the beta players, out one to hide the rest" Ainz said with a cruel smile.

"Wait, wait a minute, doesn't that mean…?"

Indeed.

"Lind was a former beta, ironic isn't it? You hate Kirito soo much yet you two want to make Diabel a hero… pathetic, people like you is what is wrong with society, they look for someone to blame and not deal with things. And you want me to respect **you**? Don't make me laugh" Ainz said.

Kirito blinked in shock, was all this true?

"Not to mention, you guys have a mole making you two idiots fight each other, a former beta player who enjoys seeding chaos, I believe you two know him quite well, his name is Morte"

Both Kibaou and Lind flinched.

"We, with that said I bid you two gentlemen adieu"

"Wait, we're are you going?" Kibaou yelled.

"I'm putting the quest on hold and about to start tackling the labyrinth. And while you're stuck in the campaign quagmire, bickering every step of the way, we'll be ransacking all the chests and ores in the tower. Remember, he is a beater and I am a pragmatist- don't expect us to leave any of the good stuff. And if you don't catch up by the boss chamber, we'll gather our own group of players to take him down. He's a beater and a front runner and I am very quick at catching up to him in skill and technique, we'll do things however we please."

"That's impossible!"

Kirito looked up and saw a man in the midst of the ALS crowd, waving a fist around as he screamed. His skinny torso was clothed in the moss-green tunic of the guild and dark studded leather, and he wore a leather mask of the same color, which covered his face except for the eyes and mouth. He was obscured by the other members, so he couldn't see his weapon.

The man's screech was strangely familiar. "He's full of it! You can't get to the boss chamber on your own! He's just pretending to go to the labyrinth so he can finish the campaign behind our backs!"

The other ALS members, and some of the DKB, started to rustle uneasily. From what he could make out of their voices, most were skeptical of Ainz statement.

The skinny man screeched again. "Don't let that brat lie to you! He's even soiling Diavel's good image! Ignore him and focus on the campaign..."

"Shut up, Joe," Kibaou grumbled, and the masked man named Joe grudgingly lowered his arm. This opening gave Lind a chance to speak.

"...I'm well aware of your skill level you two, but even you two cannot conquer the labyrinth on your own. I'm not in total agreement with the ALS, but I do find it hard to believe that you have given up on the campaign. As a former tester Kirito, you certainly understand the benefit of completing an extended quest series. Besides"–his sharp eyes scanned the area–"where is your other partner? What if she took the story item and ran off to complete the quest while you're occupying our attention here?"

It was completely off the mark but difficult to deny. Our partner–temporary party member, technically–was back at the dark elf base, sleeping in the tent next to Kizmel. There was no way to spirit her here to prove our innocence.

We had no choice but to stay silent as both guilds hurled accusations in our direction. As the volume grew louder and louder, we were struck by faint déjà vu.

It was the same kind of massive public condemnation that surrounded Nezha of the Legend Braves after admitting to his upgrading scam just after the second-floor boss battle.

Back then, the cries had eventually demanded his life as payment. If the other Braves hadn't gone down on hands and knees to apologize with him, someone might actually have drawn their sword on Nezha.

Now that Kirito thought about it, one of the reasons that terrible, tense scene had come about was the mysterious man in the black poncho who taught the Braves about the trick to swindling others through the upgrade system. His presence seemed eerily similar to that of Morte's in this case.

Was it possible that they were the same person?

If that was the case, Morte's motivations were definitely evil. He'd convinced both guilds to take part in the elf quest on opposite sides and got them to collide at that hill. And that meant he was hiding at the riverside hoping to prevent anyone–meaning me–from completing the quest and causing the camp to disappear.

But…

What did he possibly stand to gain by pitting the DKB and ALS against each other?

While we weren't a unified group, the frontline players had successfully beaten the first and second floors and were just about to reach the third labyrinth. Weakening the group with infighting would only delay our ability to beat this game and escape. It would have a much wider effect than just PK-ing him.

Did Morte...not want to escape this digital prison?

Could anyone really think that way?

"Say something!" came the high-pitched screech again. He raised his head. The man Kibaou had called Joe was shouting, his eyes blazing through the holes in the mask.

"You are Joe… as in Johnny Black?" Ainz spoke suddenly.

"Uh? You know me?" he asked.

"You could say that" Ainz said with a smirk.

He slowly begun to read his data code.

He had been in contact with Morte before, and there was a remnant of his data back on the second floor boss room.

Not to mention on Nezha.

"And how do you know know about that?" Ainz challenged.

"What?"

"you say this quest is important, however there are 2 people who know such things, beta players… or programmer" Ainz said with a smirk.

They a turned to Joe.

"Don't- Don't turn things around you dirty sellout! You just pair up with the filthy beater to reap the rewards" he said to further incite more hatred.

"So? I am a gamer first, me working with Nii-san is just effective and we both benefit from this partnership, why should I feel bad for you all? I am going to complete this game on my own terms, I don't have to follow your rules and morals" he said shocking everyone.

"Still where is the girl! I bet she positioned herself to further the quest as soon as you two finished this!" he roared.

"So where is she? I bet she's rushing ahead, finishing all the quests before anyone else! And if not, bring her out here to prove it!"

It was not Kirito nor Ainz who answered that challenge, or Kibaou, or Lind.

A voice, quiet but strong willed, carried through the night air of the forest from the back of the group.

"If it's me you want, I'm right here."

Later–much, much later–Asuna told us, "If someone had drawn their sword, I might have gone orange," with a grin on her face.

Fortunately, it did not rain blood, but there was a fresh, different kind of tension that gripped the scene.

Both guilds were quite shocked, of course. But that was nothing compared to Kirito's. For an instant, he thought he had to be imagining that voice.

He stood dumbfounded on the path halfway up the hill, staring at the wall of players ahead. Eventually, the ALS members moved right, and the DKB members moved left, as though pushed by some invisible force.

The open path split east and west at the foot of the hill, and there was thick forest beyond that. Right across from the T-intersection was a particularly wide and ancient tree that dwarfed the others. From around the rear of that tree, whose trunk we had just been hiding behind as he spied on the group only minutes ago, a single figure emerged.

A red hooded cape tinged with gray. A dark crimson tunic and leather skirt. And at her waist, a silver rapier that glinted and shone bright, even in the dim light of the moon.

Ainz smirked "Seems like nee-chan is good at calming people"

"And you almost made them all try to attack us" Kirito said glaring at the kid.

"Hey, I did not say anything false did I? I told them the truth and how stupid they were reacting"

"Couldn't you be a bit more tactful?"

"No, I like to be honest about things, also they needed a kick in their arses"

Kirito could not disagree with that

Still if she was hiding behind that same tree, then she couldn't have been there all along, but only during the ten minutes we snuck around into the camp, he speculated, to little benefit or point.

Lind and Kibaou joined the others in stepping back. With the path entirely clear, the intruder coolly stepped forward.

Underneath her rippling hood, the light brown eyes were firm and resolute. There was no way to read the emotions within.

Asuna the fencer, sole woman of the frontline population and our current partner, stopped at his right side and spun around theatrically, then spoke to the crowd, her voice crisp and clear.

"As his partner, I too will be heading for the labyrinth. Once there, we will be looking for the boss chamber. As I recall, whoever finds it first gets to be raid leader."

At that, both Lind and Kibaou went pale, and the other sixteen stirred and muttered. In a way, her statement was even more grandiose than Ainz, but no one stepped up with accusations this time, partly because of the surprise of her sudden entrance, and partly because of the sheer presence of that glittering Chivalric Rapier on her belt. The knight's sword, far better than even Kirito's Anneal Blade +8, unleashed a ghostly pressure in the bluish light of the moon.

This reminded him that he was planning to inform the group that the elf base camps were capable of forging weapons just as good during the meeting four days ago, but didn't get the chance after Lind's demand that we join guilds separately. Of course, if he had done that, all the guild forces would have immediately set upon the campaign quest, and this exact scene might have played out the same way, only with twice the people involved.

Just as he started to distract himself by planning to study the strange, unfriendly blacksmith more before revealing our findings to the group, it happened.

"I...I know the truth! In the first and second floors, they didn't bother to help map the tower, they just went around opening all the leftover chests! There's no way that going from one to two will make a difference in getting them to the boss room!"

Again, the screech belonged to Joe from the ALS. Now that the group had shifted right, he could see his entire form. Hanging from his skinny waist was a sharply curved dagger.

Kirito recognized it as a Numb Dagger, a rare drop from the minotaurs of the second-floor labyrinth that had an occasional chance to stun upon hitting an enemy.

Now that he knew him as a dagger user, the memory came back to me. Joe was the one who claimed that Nezha's upgrade scam had caused someone to die...as well as the one who accused him of being a former beta tester back on the first floor. Sadly, he couldn't put his face to memory because of the mask, but based on his open antagonism, that was a name he needed to know. He felt slightly ashamed that it had taken him this long.

His worst habit and weakness was his tendency not to look at others' faces or bother to remember their names. Someday that was going to put him in danger. He focused on skinny, short Joe, burning his image into my mind.

Once he was certain that he would remember him the next time he saw him, he finally opened his mouth to speak for the first time in two minutes.

"If you think we can't reach the boss chamber on our own, Joe, then why don't you just let us go? We're going to the labyrinth, just as Ainz announced."

"I am gonna let you go! C'mon, Kiba, let's stop wasting time and move on to the next–"

The obnoxious shriek was cut off by a stern glare from his guild leader.

"Don't make me repeat myself, Joe. Shut yer damn mouth," Kibaou growled, then turned to me, Ainz and Asuna. He scratched at his cactus hair and grumbled, "I jus' don't know what's what anymore. You really think you can handle the boss without the campaign quest rewards? If there's any chance at all that we need 'em to tackle the boss, it ain't too late to wait and find out."

"You have a point," he agreed and stared appraisingly at each leader in turn. "But if testing out the reward loot is truly your aim, then either the DKB or ALS should abandon the quest. If you attempt to complete the dark elf and forest elf factions at the same time, you will clash again, like tonight. If you can discuss the matter and determine which of the two will step down, I'm willing to wait until we've done our homework."

Once again, the two guild leaders and their cohorts went pale. Joe was obliviously ready to screech another accusation, but the greatsword user next to him yanked on his arm to shut him up.

In truth, he wanted to announce that one man had successfully convinced both guilds to start on the campaign, but alas, we had no proof that the swordsman Morte who had just joined the DKB was the same person as the ax warrior we saw among Kibaou's party in the cave. If he made accusations on uncertain evidence, it would only complicate the situation.

He watched the two leaders closely, hiding his desperate prayer behind a carefully crafted sour expression. If Morte's aim was to pit the guilds against each other, then he needed to prevent the group of clearers from breaking apart. It wasn't out of some great desire for justice–He just knew that Morte was our sworn enemy. This was a continuation of the 'duel' with Ainz, playing out on a very different battleground.

Kibaou and Lind shared a look for about two seconds, then snorted simultaneously. The ALS leader looked away in a huff, and the DKB boss turned to him and shook his head.

"I'm afraid that will be impossible, Kirito. Perhaps if we were just starting, but we've both reached the sixth chapter of the questline. We would be losing out on too much to stop now."

Kirito resisted the urge to drop his shoulders in disappointment and nodded with the same stoic look on my face. "I see. Then while you are butting heads, we will be racing through the labyrinth."

"It is a shame, but I have to assume you are bluffing. The game's labyrinths are not so easy that a party of three can reach the boss–even if they happen to be you three. I realize this is not the best timing to ask, but have you considered giving up on your stubborn refusal yet? Perhaps the time is right to stop insisting on your solo play and join a guild. As I stated the other day, however, you cannot both join the same guild, in the interest of balance."

You're going to bring that up now? Seriously?

Ainz put his hand on his blade's handle

Kirito went pale–separate guilds was just the magic phrase that would set Asuna off. Scratch that, it would be worst if Ainz was set off. As he feared, the moment he said that, the silent fencer took a menacing step forward. But what she said took us by surprise.

"It's not just the two of us."

Before we even had time to wonder, the space just left of hi., dyed in the pale blue moonlight, silently split open.

I'd seen this phenomenon, of the space turning inside out, four nights earlier in the forest outside of Zumfut. Well, technically, he only heard the rustling of the cape from behind him, but it was clearly the same ability at work.

Only one person could successfully hide in full moonlight, in the middle of an empty field, with the watchful eyes of nearly twenty players, for several minutes, without being spotted.

The cloak with the invisibility charm parted left and right, and a sheer, shiny head of pale purple hair like fine silk caught the moonlight. Next came an elegant breastplate of black metal with purple inlay. In her left hand and at her left hip were a kite shield and longsword, both with the rich shine of mithril. The bare skin of her arms and legs appeared to be deep navy blue in the darkness.

When she raised her head triumphantly, her side bangs rustled lightly, revealing a stunning beauty and long, narrow ears. Her onyx eyes stared down the speechless group, and the third member of our party spoke in a sharp voice.

"I am Kizmel, a royal knight of the Pagoda Knights Brigade in the service of the kingdom of Lyusula!"

She extended her right arm from the cape in the direction of me and Asuna.

"I have pledged my support to the human warriors Kirito, Ainz and Asuna as they venture forth to the Pillar of the Heavens! Even the stoutest guardians within the tower shall be as helpless as the morning dew before my blade!"

If they were at the sixth quest of the campaign, both the DKB and ALS must have recognized the name Kizmel mentioned as the nation beneath the dark elf queen's rule. The "Pillar of the Heavens" was descriptive enough to be an obvious term for the labyrinth tower.

What he couldn't tell was exactly why every guild member present was stunned into silence–whether it was Kizmel's beauty, the fact that an NPC knew our names, or the overwhelming power of the level-18 elite monster.

Probably all of the above, he decided. Lind staggered back a step or two, his face as pale as ice.

"A...are you sure you want to stand there, Kirito?"

"Huh? Why wouldn't I?"

"That dark elf's cursor is pitch-black...She must be a higher level than even the elite mob from the very first quest..."

Now he understood. To him, Ainz and Asuna and the ALS members on the dark elf side of the campaign, Kizmel's color cursor was the yellow shade that signified an NPC. But Lind and the DKB were on the forest elf side, so it would be the red of an enemy monster. Depending on the level difference between the player and target, a red cursor would change shades all the way from light pink to dark crimson. Now that the elite knight had leveled up during our time together, she must have seemed nearly black to the level-15 Lind.

Kibaou glanced back and forth from the retreating Lind to Kizmel, cloak rippling in the night breeze. He took a few steps backward himself and hissed at his rival.

"Hey! Is it true her cursor's black?"

"Yes...I doubt we could defeat her as an entire party."

"That's crazy...How'd they get such a whopper ta work with 'em?" he moaned.

Kizmel must have heard him, because she turned to me and whispered, "Your human language is even more complex than I knew."

That was probably a comment on Kibaou's Kansai dialect. Whatever language engine Kizmel's AI used must only work with standard Japanese, so half of Kibaou's words had to be indecipherable to her.

Ainz chuckled briefly, then realized something.

The group had been throwing around technical terms about the game: quests, campaigns, story items, and so on. These all pointed to the truth of the matter–that this was a virtual world existing only within a server in the real world. They suggested that the floating castle Aincrad was not a slice of the world set adrift into the sky by the Great Separation, but was merely the setting of this VRMMO game called Sword Art Online.

Of course, Kizmel had no knowledge of any of this. She was born and raised in this world as a dark elf and fought her way to knighthood. Who knew how she interpreted the words of the game's players? Could we be certain that her interpretation did not do any damage to the AI controlling her?

Lind and Kibaou stepped down the hill to rejoin their partners, coming together for a deep discussion.

Now was the time to say to Kizmel what Kirito hadn't been able to say–assuming he really thought of her not as an NPC assistant, but a partner...a friend.

"Kizmel," he muttered. There must have been something telling in his voice, for the dark elf knight the boy and the fencer both turned to look at him. "Listen...Neither Asuna, Ainz nor I were born in this castle. We were brought here from a far-off place, and we're fighting to get back home to our world."

Asuna sucked in a sharp breath. He reached out to brush the back of Kizmel's hand, facing her directly.

The elf knight stared back at him, slightly puzzled. There was no way to know what kind of information processing was happening behind those onyx-black pools.

Maybe he shouldn't have said that. Perhaps the GM will show up out of nowhere, pull her away, and reinitialize her

After an eternity of silent seconds, Kizmel's luscious lips parted.

"Of course I know that."

"...Huh...?'

"I chose not to ask you about it until now. It is the last great charm that humanity has, is it not? To summon warriors from a foreign land and have them fight to unify all of the Pillars of the Heavens as one...We dark elves are much the same–we carry on a long battle to protect all of the secret keys from the forest elves and preserve the seal on the Sanctuary..."

"...Um...I...guess so...?"

Kizmel's description was a simple interpretation of the SAO incident in terms that made sense to the setting of the game, but he didn't see any reason to go overturning her understanding in order to make it clearer to her. Instead, he agreed with her explanation, and she smiled.

"We have teleportation charms that allow us to travel between floors, so we have no use for the Pillars of the Heavens that you humans are so fixated upon. However, if you wish, I will assist you in your quest. But only for a price." Her smile grew wider, and she looked back and forth at both of us. "Tell me of the land where you were born someday. What your families were like and how you were raised."

"...Yeah, of course nee-chan. I promise," Ainz said.

Kirito was struck by a sudden thought.

What was the point of stressing that Aincrad was only a virtual world and a game? To Kizmel, and to Asuna and Ainz and to him, this world was the only reality. The game lingo "quest" was merely a human-language term for duty. What was wrong with that?

"And we'll also teach you all about our human language. If we go fighting in the labyrinth–that's what we call the Pillar of the Heavens–you're going to need to know our terms."

"I would very much like that," Kizmel replied, and I could sense Asuna smiling.

"Sorry about the wait. We've come to a decision," Lind announced, and the three of us looked back down the hill. The scimitar user clearly did not wish to get any closer to Kizmel, but he overcame his hesitation to climb a few steps up the slope.

"To get right to the point...the Dragon Knights Brigade and Aincrad Liberation Squad have both decided to abandon the campaign quest."

What?

Kirito was mildly–no, significantly–surprised, but he made sure not to let that show on his face.

"However, it is still necessary to investigate whether or not the benefits of the campaign might be crucial to defeating the floor boss. We would like for your group to handle that duty."

What?

Again, he kept my face straight. In return, ge asked him, "That's fine with me, but what are you going to do now?"

Lind looked uncomfortable, and Kibaou filled the awkward silence with an angry, resigned bellow. "That's obvious! We're gonna go map out the labyrinth! If we left it to y'all and someone died in an accident, I wouldn't sleep well at night!"

"...I see," he said, finally breaking my stoic expression with a wry smile. Asuna sighed and muttered, "That's one way of putting it." But it was probably the best choice.

"See, now that's something I can respect" Ainz said.

The mysterious Morte did not show up, but he was probably still registered with the DKB while maintaining connections to the ALS. If both guilds continued with the campaign, it only left Morte with more opportunities to fan the flames of their rivalry. We had to get proof of Morte's plot so that we could expose him publicly and force the truth out of him.

Speaking of antagonistic characters, he looked around for Joe, wondering how he was taking this decision. He spotted him at the edge of the ALS group, back turned and hands folded behind his head in an obvious sulking pose. Once again, he couldn't help but be impressed at Kibaou's leadership that he could manage a handful like him in the guild.

Rather than actually saying that aloud, he took a deep breath and turned to Lind. "All right. Today's the nineteenth, and we were planning to tackle the boss on the twenty-first. We'll aim to finish the campaign by the evening of the twentieth and report the results. You'll have to trust our information, of course."

Now it was Lind's turn to give an awkward, stiff smile. "I'm not going to quibble about that at this point. Kirito, earlier you said that you were going to do what needed to be done as a front-runner. It pains me to admit it, but...you reminded me of Diavel."

He bit his lip several times before finally continuing. "In the very first strategy meeting down in Tolbana on the first floor, Diavel said that we had to beat the boss and get to the second floor to show everyone that the game could be beaten. That it was our duty as the best players. He...he thought he was carrying out his will. To create the guild he would have started and raise it to be the best...That was my duty..."

But with Ainz, with his revelation had made them step back.

The other DKB members like Hafner and Shivata, and even the ALS, listened in silence to Lind's rare confession of his innermost feelings. When he raised his head again, there was a new light of determination in his eyes as he stared at me. The question that followed caught me by surprise.

"I think this is a good time to ask. You said you heard Diabel's words. What did he say...?"

Ainz couldn't answer right away.

 **December 3rd 2022 eve of the first floor boss** **battle**

Ainz was walking on the dark streets at night.

A lone girl walked into a church making sure no one was following her.

She did not know that Ainz was tailing her by turning his data into the hidden parameters. This would make him invisible to the game and anyone in there but he would still function. It was a trick he picked up when he wanted to hide files.

He went into the confession booth, one one said there was someone there, he entered in the same booth as Argo nee-chan.

"I'll make the report brief… about three hundred, that's the confirmed number of beta testers that have died" Argo said.

Ainz was shocked, this was more than what he thought it would be.

"This means the mortality of 40%, this is more than twice the rate of newcomers, this is mostly due to alterations done during the beta"

"Yes, it is due to the alterations since the beta… even the tiniest change can turn deadly, of course newcomers won't get any if this, if the information on the boss is different in beta and anyone dies… the mistrust to beta testers… will be irreversible" the other person said.

"If that happens… led their suspicions to me" She said.

Ainz gasped, she couldn't do it.

He wrapped his arms around her but on his intangible mode he was in he was unable to touch her.

"It will be the birth of Argo the beta tester… a cowardly, cheating intel dealer who combines truth and fiction in devious ways for profit" she said as her body shivered.

She knew what would it mean to her life.

She would be hunted and possibly PKed, she would be hated and ostracized.

"No, I can't put you through that, if anyone can bridge the gap between new players and betas is you and only you… check my payment to see if it adds up" the man said.

The man exit the confessionary.

It was Diabel.

"Has anyone else asked for the same info as I have?" he asked.

"Yes… only one" She said.

"I see… good, that means there is someone else who can take my role should I fall"

Argo smirked "Hate to break it to you, but he is not one to step into the spotlight, he is not really a person who likes to lead others"

"A leader? No, the role on this situation… is a scapegoat"

Ainz then knew what he had to do.

He had to destroy this plan.

He had not right to decide who should carry such weight.

He was a person, he had no right to play god.

It was the and there he decided he would do. He had to protect those who others decided to use for their plans.

It was a shame that Kirito played into his plan, albeit he managed to save him.

He remembered what he did that day, when he left the party for a bit on the second floor.

He went back to the first floor and looked for Diabel.

He was in a room in a church, some people decided that since it was unused that it could serve for people to use as a place to rest for those who suffered some mental trauma, it was run by a few psychology students who wanted to help people deal with the trauma they experienced.

He entered the room, silent as a ghost.

"Diabel… or should I say Akuma?"

His body tensed.

"You… you were the one who saved me with that strange sword skill, how do you know…"

"how or why I know that is not important, your plan with Argo-nee is, what kind of leader are you? You fought not to win, you just wanted the LA, I know what you did Diabel, you purposely and actively tried to sabotage Kirito to stop him from getting the LA, you used the spiky haired idiot for it too, it took a while but I pieced all the info together, not to mention your so perfect attitude, you are a beta as well as Kirito-nii, and worst you tried to make him into a fall guy in case your gambit did not pay off, if you ever try this stunt again you won't need to worry about a monster killing you, I will make damn sure to kill you in the most painful way possible in here, and it won't be quick, I will make you watch as I drain your HP pixel by pixel, do I make myself clear?"

Diabel looked at the young boy's eyes, the kindness and worry they held back then we're long gone, he was serious.

He felt a 'pressure' on him as Ainz directed his displeasure to him.

It was as if someone turned gravity up on him.

"It will not be a pathetic person such as yourself that will save all the souls trapped here, you were never meant to, and you knew it. That's why you decided to lead the Raid group, to find people who could support and increase your odds however slightly, but I put an end to that, while Kirito is fine with shouldering the player's hatred I am not so accommodating, should something happen to him or anyone involved in your charade, I **will come for you… and I will end you** "

Diabel then understood something, beneath the kind and sweet cement of this young boy, laid a monster ready to unleash hell on those who harmed uninvolved in this, he wouldn't allow people to carry a burden that was never theirs and were pushed into it.

"I will clear this game on my terms, I will not just follow Kayaba's plan to the letter, I will overthrow him and take over this place and free all the players, watch me" with that Ainz left the room.

This is why he was protective of Argo, she was a good woman and deserved respect.

The shock of what he said and the conviction in his words just made him lose it, he hadn't been the same.

Which suited Ainz fine, he said something he did not want people to know.

His plan to steal Kayaba's control on this world.

In the end Ainz remained silent.

He then came into a solution.

"He said to me… don't let them be led astray by people who just want to cause chaos and disorder" Ainz said.

Having announced that we would have the ten quests of the campaign available on this floor completed by five o'clock on December twentieth–just forty hours from then–we returned to the dark elf base, delivered the item to the commander to finish the "Infiltration" quest, and immediately left for our next mission.

The seventh chapter, "Butterfly Collection," was a brief breather of a quest that simply involved finding and defeating a giant butterfly released by the forest elves for reconnaissance. It would have been even easier with a decent Throwing Knives skill, but he didn't have the open slot at this point, thankfully Ainz did for some reason and provided backup, because the rest didn't we had to go racing after the butterfly in the night forest, picking up stones to throw at it.

In the eighth chapter, "The Western Spirit Tree," the dark elf commander had read and digested the top-secret forest elf orders we brought back and was prepared to lead an attack on the forest elf base. He wanted to have the Jade Key secretly transported to their outpost on the fourth floor. Asuna, Ainz, Kizmel, and himself, accompanied by three dark elf soldiers, headed for the spirit tree the elves used to travel between floors.

Of course, these transport missions never ended uneventfully, and as we made our way toward the tree at the western edge of the forest, a mysterious band dressed in black ambushed us. Out of the four masked attackers–labeled Unknown Marauders in the game–we handily dispatched three. Asuna, Ainz and he

were well over the expected level at this point, and we had the services of the elite knight Kizmel. But the fourth marauder threw a smoke bomb and stole the key from the confused elven soldiers.

Naturally, he knew this ambush was coming, and he was ready to attempt defeating all four of them, but it was indeed an unwinnable fight. The other three bodies immediately blackened and melted away, so there was no way to tell who they were.

In the ninth quest, "Pursuit," we had to chase the thief through the forest. In the beta, he remembered this single quest lasting nearly from morning until night. It took that long because finding the "Shining Signal"–a small bottle of glowing liquid one of the elf soldiers hit the thief with–was incredibly hard in the midst of the deep forest.

We started the ninth chapter after noon on the nineteenth, and he was prepared for it to last well into the night. To his surprise–though at this point, he should have expected it–Kizmel's help proved invaluable. She stood at the lead and immediately pointed out the direction of the glowing light at every turn, so we discovered the thief's hideout cave by two o'clock.

The next step was to report to the commander, so we went back to base for food and rest, and by the evening, we were ready for the tenth and final quest of the campaign on the third floor, "Retrieving the Key." It was a difficult task that involved exploring a large dungeon, though not as large as the labyrinth. This was too much to complete before the end of the day, especially since our day had begun well before dawn, so we had to turn back after defeating the enormous whip spider boss of the dungeon's first level.

At eleven o'clock that night, we returned to the base and took turns bathing. This time, Kizmel decided to barge in during Asuna's turn, and sadly, there was no way to tell exactly what was happening beyond the tent flap based on the brief shrieks, splashes, and occasional laughing, Ainz had hidden himself to avoid another bathing incident. After a late dinner, we went to bed and woke up in the early morning of December twentieth. After a quick tune-up with the blacksmith and some supply refills at the item shop, we briskly headed to conquer the second floor of the large underground dungeon.

Since we had returned to camp, the extra soldiers no longer accompanied us, but it was actually easier to coordinate high- level combat maneuvers with just the four of us. We powered our way through the insect and animal monsters, and finally came across the masked thief's hideout at the bottom of the dungeon.

We snuck up and peered through the window of their dining room-like space, spotting five more thieves without masks on. They weren't forest elves, and certainly not dark elves. They were an entirely different race with skin dark purple, as though rotting away, and somehow demonic features.

The information on their cursors identified them as Fallen Elf Warriors. Kizmel looked nervous, but there wasn't time to stop and ask her about it. We proceeded onward and won several inescapable battles, finally arriving at the final boss of the dungeon and quest, the Fallen Elf Commander.

He was a difficult foe with a number of minions, but with our levels at the realistic limit for this floor, he posed no true threat to us. When Asuna's Chivalric Rapier delivered the killing blow, the commander hurled a final curse at us and melted away.

At the back of the room was a mountain of treasure, along with the Jade Key. This time, we managed to transport the key all the way to the spirit tree, signaling the end (at least on the third floor) of the long, long campaign.

But just as Asuna and I were about to high-five each other on a job well done, Kizmel interrupted with a surprising statement.

"Asuna… Ainz...and Kirito," she said slowly and carefully, the light playing over her beautiful purple hair. "Now that it is clear the Fallen are in league with the forest elves, we must deliver this key to the fortress on the next floor above with haste. He believes that this task will fall upon me to complete..."

"Huh?"

Asuna's eyes went wide, and she took a step forward. Her face had the nervous smile of one who suspected what was coming. "Th-then we'll go with you. Just in case there's another ambush."

"Thank you, Asuna. Your offer is very kind."

Kizmel stopped there. She moved over to Asuna's side and looked upward.

We were close to the outer perimeter of Aincrad, and the pure blue expanse stretched out before us. The knotted trunk of the spirit tree stood in stark contrast to the cobalt sky behind it.

Near the roots of the fifteen-foot-wide tree was a large, gaping knot that led to a hollowed interior, but unlike the trees of Zumfut, this was not carved out by human hands. In the darkness within the hole, a blue light pulsed. Around the tree, mossy rocks formed a solid wall, and the only gate that accessed the tree was guarded by a quartet of dark elf sentries.

This tree was a teleporter for elves, and the forest elves had their own on the other side of the floor. As you might expect, there was much debate during the beta regarding whether or not these trees could be used to bypass the labyrinth. One guild even pulled together a thirty-man raid party to assault the tree, but the four guards easily quashed the attempt. His guess was that even if they'd succeeded, nothing would happen inside the tree.

As she stared up at the tree, Kizmel's next statement confirmed that months-old expectation.

"...Sadly, only the people of Lyusula are permitted to pass through the spirit tree's gate..."

Asuna was expecting this. After several long moments of silence, she nodded. "I see..."

"Yes," Kizmel returned solemnly. The elf shut her lips tight for a while, then turned and circled her arms around Asuna's back. The fencer's eyes widened briefly in surprise, but she returned the knight's embrace just as quickly.

With her mouth right at Asuna's ear, Kizmel whispered just loud enough for him to hear, "After I lost my sister a month ago, I was waiting to find my place to die. When I crossed blades with the white knight of Kales'Oh, I thought I was going to see my sister again. But...you, Ainz and Kirito appeared and saved me. She must have guided you to my side..."

He didn't know Tilnel the herbalist had ever really existed in Aincrad. There was no way to know if the dark elves and forest elves had really carried out a major battle if there were no players around to see it. Those memories, including Tilnel, might have simply been implanted into Kizmel's programming as a story background, a backbone to her character.

But he could have sworn he saw a pale shimmer in the air beside Kizmel and Asuna. Perhaps it was just the light engine shining through the branches of the spirit tree. Or perhaps…

"...We'll see you again, won't we?" Asuna murmured into Kizmel's hair. The elf nodded vigorously.

"Absolutely. The Holy Tree will guide us together."

She squeezed harder, then released her hold. Kizmel shared one last smile with Asuna before looking at me.

He was expecting a handshake, perhaps a high five...but Kizmel strode forward with no hesitation and enveloped me in her arms as well. The cool, smooth metal of her armor and fresh piney scent made me feel like I was deep in a forest.

"The next time we meet, Kirito, I will tell you more of my dreams," she whispered. He put his hands on her back.

"Yeah, sounds good."

"It is a promise, then."

And with a last squeeze of her arms, Kizmel let go. She took a step back, then another, and raised her right fist to her left breast in salute. Asuna, Ainz and himself automatically returned it.

"And now...this is farewell. I am sorry not to accompany you to the Pillar of the Heavens, but I believe that you have the skill to dispatch its guardians. Be done with them and ascend. I will be waiting for you on the fourth floor."

"Take care, Kizmel," Asuna said. The knight smiled, then spun on her heel. Long cloak flapping, she strode off for the gate.

"Kizmel-nee"

She turned around.

"Dying is easy, but living is harder… don't die to see your sister, live to make this world a place she would be proud of… so don't disappear"

She smiled at him.

The guards stepped aside, she passed through, and they closed behind her.

Kizmel stepped through the knothole of the spirit tree without a backward glance and disappeared into its darkness. A few seconds later, the faint blue light flashed much brighter.

On the left side of his vision, the third HP bar that had been displayed for the last week vanished with a breezy jingle.

In the end, the reward for completing the third-floor portion of the Elf War campaign did not contain anything useful for defeating the boss.

When the commander back at the base thanked us for our service, the list of items we were able to choose from included half a dozen pieces of gear. But no matter how many times he pored over their specs, effects, and flavor text, there wasn't a single word that suggested any particular connection to the floor boss.

He ended up choosing a pair of leather boots with extra resistance to Tumbling and some extra jumping power, and Asuna picked out a new hooded cape made of the same material as Kizmel's favorite cloak. The faintly glowing pale purple cape gave a solid bonus to hiding and increased agility, though not to the extent of the original, Ainz choose a ring that further increased his Agility and a small boost to his Strenght.

Until this point, our interactions with the dark elf commander had been very perfunctory–absolutely NPC-like. When we had chosen our rewards, he rose from his chair, and with concern on his face, said, "We elves are long-lived, but we can be hurt with blades as much as anyone else, and a deep-enough wound will kill. We are not gifted with the hardiness of the dwarves and humans. The Fallen Elves you fought in the underground maze are the descendants of those who sought to use the Holy Tree's magic to forge themselves bodies impervious to blades. This happened before the Great Separation, and they were banished for it. They are numerous throughout this castle, and their cooperation with the forest elves in search of the keys is troubling in the extreme.

As the advance troop, we will remain here for now, surveying for traces of the Fallen before returning to our fortress on the fourth floor. Your continued assistance will be greatly appreciated."

Asuna and I shared a brief look and nodded together.

"W-we'd be happy to."

"Anything we can do."

"Good. Your help is a boon...I suspect the general at the fortress will treat you magnanimously. Take this commendation with you."

The commander picked a tightly rolled piece of parchment off his desk and offered it to him. We thanked him for this extra reward and were preparing to leave when the commander spoke again.

"You are going to climb the Pillar of the Heavens to the fourth floor?"

"Y...yes, that's the plan."

"In that case, be wary of the guardian beast's poisonous attack. You ought to prepare yourselves with plenty of poison counteracting potions while you are in camp."

"Th-thank you very much for the advice," Kirito said, bowing and leaving the tent.

As soon as we ventured outside, a horn sounded, signaling the passage of noon. We took a dozen steps toward the inviting scent of the dining tent before looking over to Asuna.

"...I'm not going to say I wasn't grateful for the advice, but..."

"Now it's harder to say that the quest rewards helping with the boss wasn't true..."

"Well technically it wasn't a reward as much as flavor text for the quest" Ainz said as a thought.

Over the past day, he'd explained to Asuna about Ainz's riverside duel with the swordsman/axman Morte and his suspicious activities.

Morte had joined the Dragon Knights Brigade and was helping them with the campaign–that much had been confirmed by Argo. And it was also certainly true that he was moonlighting with the Aincrad Liberation Squad, using a different class of weapon.

However, we suspected that Kibaou's sudden interest in the campaign, and his firm belief that the rewards were crucial to defeating the boss, were based on info Morte fed to him. If that source was a total lie, we were hoping to use that fact to get Kibaou to fess up about where he'd learned it. And yet…

"None of the items we could earn for finishing the quest had any special effect against the floor boss. Since Kibaou said the items you earned from the elf quest were necessary to avoid big trouble against the boss...then you could say that his information was a lie..."

"Right...But if someone claimed that the hint about poison antidotes was that reward, it's a lot harder to write it off entirely," Asuna responded almost immediately, her quick wit in keeping with her agility-first build. "All you can do now is just explain the truth exactly as it happened at the meeting tonight. If we watch Morte's reaction closely, maybe he'll give something away. At any rate, let's eat and take a break before we go. I hope they let us use Kizmel's tent."

"...G-good point."

Even if it was available to use, now that the owner was away on the fourth floor, it would just be the three of us sleeping under the same canopy. He chose not to bring that up and trotted after Asuna to the dining tent.

Thankfully, when Asuna did notice that the three of us would be sharing a tent alone, there was no fruit for her to throw, so he got a faceful of soft cushion instead.

"You need to come up with stuff to say beforehand nii-san… you should write it in a memo" Ainz said with a chuckle.

Kirito just groaned.

 **Five in the evening.**

The second strategy meeting was about to begin in the meeting grounds of Zumfut.

Lind's DKB and Kibaou's ALS had finished mapping the labyrinth tower up to the boss chamber on the top floor. The DKB had just barely beaten them to the door, so for the second floor in a row, the MC of the strategy meeting and the leader of the raid would be Lind.

What threw Asuna and me for a loop was Morte's absence from the meeting grounds. Perhaps he had changed his entire gear setup–in the safety of town, he could feel free to put on weapons whose skills he didn't have–taken off his coif, and slipped among the crowd in a form he didn't recognize, but Asuna said that as far as she could tell, both guilds had the same lineup as the second-floor boss battle.

The meeting began with the schedule of tomorrow morning's battle, then moved into actual strategy.

Argo had already released her strategy guide on the boss, and based upon that beta test information, we split up the parties into separate roles.

Once the questions and answers were out of the way, Lind asked me to speak. Naturally, he wanted a report on the campaign quest rewards. He stood up and started off with a basic quest outline. When he reached the part about the Fallen Elves, the crowd started to stir. Some of them wanted more details about that, but he chose to keep it brief, knowing that Argo would soon be releasing the second volume of her Elf War guide.

"First things first: Nothing in the items themselves had any unique relation to the floor boss. However, after we received our loot, the elf commander gave us one piece of advice about the boss."

The entire crowd was silent, not wanting to miss this information.

"Umm...He said, bring plenty of antidote pots, because the boss uses poison attacks...That's it."

Now the silence turned awkward. It was such an obvious, basic piece of advice–who wouldn't bring a stock of antidotes to a major fight? He cleared his throat and added a piece of information for the sake of the commander's honor.

"Just so you know, the boss in the beta test didn't have a crazy poison attack. Since that might be the thing that was altered in this fight, it's probably a good idea to bring as many potions as you can. I'll leave it up to Lind and Kibaou to decide if this info counts as a quest reward crucial to defeating the boss's or not."

He sat back down, and the meeting grounds erupted into chatter. Some thought it was a letdown that there were no secret weapons against the boss, while others claimed that this knowledge was far more useful than an item. Foremost among the latter opinion was Joe from the ALS, who screeched that if we all tried the campaign now, we might learn something even more important.

Once again, Kibaou shut him up with a single command, and when the group had quieted down, Lind rounded up the discussion with his ever-solidifying leadership.

"We will visit every item shop tonight, even on the lower floors, and procure more than enough potions for tomorrow. As planned, we will begin our operation at nine o'clock tomorrow morning. Meet at the north gate of Zumfut. We will then travel to Dessel, the closest town to the labyrinth. After a short break, we will enter the tower. If all goes according to plan, we will defeat the floor boss by two in the afternoon."

He paused and surveyed the forty-some members gathered from left to right, then raised a bracing call. "Tomorrow night, we will celebrate in the main town of the fourth floor! C'mon, everyone...Let's win this fight!"

During the last meeting, he'd watched Lind deliver a speech on stage and thought, You've got a long way to go to replace Diavel.

But even if he did not become Diavel himself, Lind had a role to play that was his and his alone. Something much more crucial than his, as he kept running from the truly important things. A role that someone had to take on, if we were actually going to reach that far-off hundredth floor.

Meanwhile, some were trying to fulfill roles that no one ought to touch. Morte was attempting to get the DKB and ALS to clash. The man in the black poncho had lured the Legend Braves into swindling other players. Whatever their intentions were, they surely would not stop now. He had to continue playing my role so that he could deal with their future machinations. Even the outcasts of the front-runners could help in his own way.

He joined the others in raising his right hand toward the flat expanse of rock and steel a hundred yards above, and clutched his newfound determination deep within my chest.

At 1:12 PM the next day–Wednesday, December 21, 2022–Nerius the Evil Treant, boss of the third floor of Aincrad, was defeated by a forty-two-man raid built from seven parties.

The large tree monster liberally used a wide-area poison skill that hadn't been there in the beta, but our stock of antidotes did not run dry. As we expected, Asuna's Chivalric Rapier easily outclassed any other weapon present in damage, and the rest of the group was left in awe, Ainz used another weapon that was not the katana he forged but another one, a large bastard sword called a Zwinhandler. It reminded Kirito of a sword a certain blond spikey haired hero would use on a game many years ago.

It was amusing seeing all the other players gape at Ainz using such a ridiculous oversized sword so effectively.

The battle took fifty-three minutes. As on the second floor, there were no fatalities.

It seemed as Morte did not partook of the battle either.

"...I was really trying to get it," Asuna sulked as we climbed the spiral staircase to the fourth floor.

"Huh? Get what?" Kirito asked. She pouted even harder.

"The Last Attack bonus, obviously."

"Ah...r-right..."

"Your sword skill and mine hit at the exact same moment at the end. They were both two-part combos, and my rapier has more attack power than your sword, doesn't it?"

"Y-yes..."

"So how did you wind up with it? Logic states I should have gotten the LA."

"Um, well...I'm guessing that maybe my attack hit just a teensy- tiny bit faster than yours maybe?"

"No! It was simultaneous!"

She turned her head away in a huff and sped faster up the stairs. We hurried after her and tried to change the subject.

However Ainz knew the magic words.

"Nee-chan, even if both were simultaneous and yours had slightly more power, Kirit got the LA due to him delivering a critical hit, that's all"

Asuna pouted but relented.

"Besides, remember when we were talking on the last staircase? I was mentioning how combat in SAO is like an, um...what was the word again?"

"A concerto!" she snapped, not bothering to turn around.

He pointed at her cape. "Yeah, that! The concerto is the thing where one instrument plays the lead, while the rest form the backing orchestra. I assumed that it was a reference to one versus many in combat, but maybe I was wrong..."

"...Oh?" Asuna replied, slowing down so she could look sidelong at him. "What does it mean, then?"

"Umm...well, you're always alone, even when you're in a party or raid...but when you're in trouble, there are people around you to help you out..."

"...That's about the last thing I'd expect you to come up with," she said honestly. He had to agree. He must have still been a bit loopy from the adrenaline of his first boss fight in a week.

Asuna glanced exasperatedly at me, let out a brief sigh, and smiled.

"In that case, the lead player in the third-floor concerto wasn't you, Ainz or me."

"...Huh? Who was it?"

"Kizmel-nee, of course." Ainz said with a grin.

Kirito had to agree. In nearly every battle during the ten quests of the campaign, Kizmel's overwhelming strength was the primary factor. She supported our endeavors at every turn. The concerto of the third floor, played on the stage of that deep, deep forest, undoubtedly featured the dark elf knight as its star.

"...We'll see her again, won't we?" Asuna mumbled. He had no answer at first. A chalk-colored door appeared ahead in the distance.

The DKB and ALS were still down in the boss chamber, conducting a dice-rolling tournament to see who would receive which piece of loot. Once again, it was our job to be the first to open the door to the next floor and to send Argo a message notifying her of the boss's defeat.

With thoughts of the next floor in his mind, untrod upon by the foot of any player, but somewhere containing our dear friend, I said…

"We will. I'm sure of it."

"After all, we promised it" Ainz supplied with a smile.

"Hey Ainz, why didn't you use your new katana?" Kirito asked.

"Yeah, it seems like a shame to not use it on a boss, would been a nice way to break it in" Asuna asked as well.

"Umm… this blade is… temperamental, it has rules to it if I want to show its true power" Ainz said looking seriously.

"Seriously?" Asuna and Kirito both asked in unison.

Ainz snorted "No, what do you think I am, a chunbiyo? No… this sword has another purpose, don't worry" Ainz said patting his blade.

This blade was solely…

For PKKing.

Chapter end


	9. Chapter 9

Sword Art Overline

Author notes: new info, there are links in my profile to images of Ainz, also I finally put a bit of a backstory for Ainz, I need a name for the girl tough… anyone care to help with it? It needs to be cute and (of course) Japanese (real Japanese, not japanese sounding). I made some drawings but I will put them later when Ainz has some more flashbacks.

Also FYI an idol troupe is basically like singers and dancers, think Love Live!, Idol M sters, etc… cute and or cool clothes and dancing and singing, if I had my laptop I would possibly make a MMD video of the dance… but alas… I don't have one anymore and all my money is being put to help my grandma and her cancer… and now she also broke her hip now… if anyone would care to help send me some donations please.

And now on with the chapter.

Chapter 9: Barcarolle of Froth fourth floor

Kirito stared silently at the blue-tinged stone door.

It was the end point of the spiral staircase that connected the fourth floor of Aincrad to the lair of the third-floor boss monster. Through this door was the virgin territory of the fourth floor. As a front-runner among the game's population, being the first to venture into new, unspoiled lands was supposed to be one of his greatest joys.

But just three steps from the final landing, he stopped still. After a few dozen seconds, his brown-haired fencer companion grew tired of waiting on the next step up.

"So how long are you going to just stand there? You've spent enough time examining the carved relief on the door. Or are you afraid because it's the fourth floor?"

Just before that question could pass straight from my right ear through to the left, my brain latched onto it, and he turned to look at her.

"...What do you mean, because it's the fourth floor?"

The fencer looked down at him with half-irritation and half-mischief in her eyes.

"You know how some people are. They don't want a room on the thirteenth floor of the hotel or the fourth because it's associated with death. Are you one of them?"

He finally understood what she was saying and quickly shook my head. "N-no way. Look at this all-black outfit. Would I really wear this color if I believed in omens and stuff like that?"

In Japan the number 4 is written as shi, which is close to shin, which means Death, basically is the same as westerns with the 13th floor.

"Well, why are you just standing there, then?"

"Um, because..." he mumbled, looking to the massive door again.

The ten-foot-tall double door was carved with detailed reliefs. The designs were different for each and every floor and typically made some reference to the theme or story of the floor to which they led. For example, there was a bull's-head relief on the door before the second floor, which was commonly known as the "Cow Floor." The door to the "Forest and Elf Floor" depicted two knights dueling beneath a massive tree.

In the center of the massive door before me now was a carving of a traveler rowing a small boat that looked like a gondola.

"Is there something about that picture? Didn't you see this in the beta test?" Ainz asked, Asuna's irritation was rising to 60 percent now. He slowly shook his head.

"No...not this. I saw the door, all right...but not this relief."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"The picture's different. In the beta, it was a traveler wandering through a desert canyon. But in this one, he's on a boat..."

She tilted her head in confusion. Her long hair shook, scattering pale light in the dim stairway hall.

"What was the fourth floor like in the beta?"

"Um...the entire floor was a crisscrossing web of canyons that were sandy at the bottom, and you had no choice but to travel through those canyons, only the sand made it really hard to walk."

"Hmm...Sounds appropriate for the picture of the man in the desert canyon. So if the picture's been changed, then..."

She continued up to the top of the stairs and put her hand on the gondola relief at the center of the door, then pushed.

With a heavy thunk, the two halves of the massive stone door began to part to the sides. Kirito quickly raced up the stairs to draw even with the fencer.

As the doors opened ever so slowly, brilliant afternoon light flooded out, blinding him with pure white. He squinted to shut out the glare, but he heard the sound before my vision returned.

It sounded like a low, deep roiling and a high-pitched leaping intertwined.

Water.

When his eyes had finished adjusting to the level of light, he found not the dried-out canyons he remembered, but a fierce, rushing mountain stream.

A hand clapped me on the shoulder.

"Well, that's that," said the kid, sounding proud for some reason.

 **1:32 PM on Wednesday, December 21, 2022.**

After a few minutes lost in discussion before passing through the door, –Kirito the level-20 swordsman– Ainz the level-20 swordsman and our temporary partner, Asuna the level-17 fencer, were the first in the entire game to set foot on the fourth floor of the floating castle Aincrad.

If the fourth floor of the game at the point of the beta test had a theme, it would be "desert canyons." As he'd explained to Asuna, the entire map of the floor was a spider web of narrow intersecting canyons that were impossible to scale, meaning that all travel had to go through those canyons, which were slow and tedious to traverse, not to mention easy to get lost within.

But what he saw couldn't have been more different from what he remembered.

The pavilion into which the staircase exited was at the top of a steep hill. The terrain itself looked the same as what it had been before, but the gravelly, reddish-brown land was now covered in lush greenery. He looked in all directions around the wall-less pavilion and saw only a single tree growing behind us and no monsters or NPCs in sight.

The hill, about ninety feet across, was surrounded by cliffs that loomed over the nearby area, but two slender paths heading to the southeast and southwest led to separate canyons. Water rushed vigorously from the southwest canyon and circled around the hill until it eventually left via the southeast canyon. In other words, what had once been a simple hill was now effectively an island.

We were already painfully aware that the retail version of Sword Art Online, which its creator Akihiko Kayaba had turned into a deadly, inescapable trap, was different from the beta test in many ways. But nothing had changed the look of the terrain in such a dramatic way before. It was not the desert canyon floor anymore.

In fact, the canyons were the only means of getting out of this area during the beta. If they were now filled with rushing white- water rapids, that meant–

"So how long are you going to stand there?" Asuna asked, jabbing him with an elbow. He recovered from the mental stun effect and apologized to his partner.

"Er...my bad. I was spacing out."

"I wasn't asking for an apology, but there are plenty of people waiting for us to reach the main city and activate the teleporter."

"Oh, right. Well...first, we should inform Argo that we defeated the boss."

Nerius the Evil Treant, the tree-shaped boss of the third floor, had been dispatched without a single casualty just twenty minutes before, but there was no way to send an instant message from within a dungeon, so no one aside from the members of the raid party knew that the boss was dead. As we were the first to reach the next floor and exit the dungeon, we needed to inform Argo the Rat, the game's preeminent information agent, that the boss was dead, so the rest of the population could be informed.

He raised his hand to open his game window, but Ainz caught it.

"I already contacted Argo-nee while you were off in la-la land nii-san."

"Ah, th-thanks. Very considerate of you..."

"Now let's get going to that main city. Whether there's water in the canyons or not, the route is still the same as before, right?"

"Um, well...I think so..."

"Then lead the way!"

She slapped him on the back, and he had no choice but to proceed.

We left the stone pavilion and headed down the damp, mossy south face of the hill. He stopped at the edge of the water and watched it race by.

The stream itself was very clear, which meant he could see all the way down to the white sand at the bottom of the waterway, but it was quite deep. By eye, he judged it to be at least six feet, if not more. There was no way for us to walk through it.

Asuna stopped next to him and looked into the river as well, then seemed to understand his consternation at last.

"Wait...why is it so deep? We can't cross to the other side like this."

"That's right...In fact, I don't think there is an other side."

"...What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. In the beta, these canyons were the only way to get to the towns and dungeons on the floor. I bet they're all deep rivers at this point–the entire floor."

The fencer's brow furrowed deeper.

"Meaning...there's no path at all now?"

"Indeed."

When he realized this fact at the top of the hill, he took a good three minutes to think over the challenge ahead of us, but Asuna required only five seconds to get her head in gear again. She glanced around.

"What's it like on top of those cliffs?"

He followed her gaze to the sheer walls that surrounded the circular hill. The gleaming wet rock proceeded vertically upward for at least ninety feet, the top of the cliff shrouded in white mist.

"I don't know. Nobody was able to climb it in the beta."

"So it's basically a system-designated barrier?"

Ainz perked his ears at this and did a quick scan, there was no data storage unit here as there was on the other floors, perhaps somewhere else, he would go back to the one in the first floor to further his map data on this locations unil he found the debug room, or the armory depot, either one would be good.

"Not explicitly, but the rock was too fragile–everyone fell down partway, including me. And once you fell from above the halfway point, pretty much every landing was fatal."

"...That sounds too dangerous to test out, even if the landing below is in water now," Asuna murmured. He nodded silently. No one was going to risk their lives for a trial-and-error attempt at scaling those cliffs.

Next, she looked down into the water again.

"Then I suppose our only option is to swim the river."

He couldn't immediately agree. He glanced at her equipment of dark red hooded cape over breastplate and leather skirt.

"Um...have you ever swum here in SAO, Asuna?"

She covered her body with her left arm for some odd reason and shook her head.

"N-no."

"I see. Then let me just explain that the way you use your body to swim in SAO is completely different from real life. It takes a lot of practice to be able to swim properly, and even practice doesn't prevent the danger of drowning."

"What happens...If you drown?" she asked, her face tense. His answer was simple.

"When your body is submerged in water above the head, your HP begin dropping. So if you don't emerge from the surface of the water, you die."

Even after that, Asuna did nothing more than bite her lip. She glanced at the blue water again and summoned her courage.

"How much practice are we talking about?"

"Well...It depends on the person, but it took me over an hour. And that was in the shallows, just three feet deep. It's too dangerous to practice in a deep, rushing river like this."

"I see...In that case, we should go back to an earlier floor and find a safe place to practice, I suppose," she muttered, looking down.

He was still searching for the right answer when she nodded and continued.

"Let's do this, then. You swim from here for the main town. I'll take the stairs back down to the third floor. I recall the perfect lake on the north side of the floor that I can use to practice. Once I'm ready, I'll use the teleport gate to the fourth floor. That means the party breaks up for a bit," she chattered, faster than her usual speed, and raised her hand for the menu screen.

This time it was my turn to grab her arm.

Her hazel-colored eyes stared right back at Kirito. The reflection of the light off the surface of the river danced against her pupils, hiding the emotion within them.

Even a complete idiot like him, when it came to personal communication, could see that Asuna would refuse an offer to go back together and help her practice. The proud fencer would refuse to accept the idea of the teleport gate being late to open on her account. It would probably be useless to point out that if we didn't do it, Lind or Kibaou would activate the teleporter or that it would automatically turn on two hours after the third-floor boss's defeat.

Instead, he finally put the feeling of wrongness he'd been grappling with since seeing the fourth floor's dramatic change into words.

"Umm...I don't think I like that."

"...What about it?" she asked quietly. He looked away toward the flowing river.

"Like I said earlier, swimming in SAO is quite dangerous. And now that dying is permanent, it's insane to imagine that they would just toss us into a map that requires you to swim to advance. We must have missed something. Maybe there's not another path, but some kind of insurance, a backup method somewhere on this island..."

By the end he was more talking to himself than anything. He looked up at the island behind us. The circular hill, barely ninety feet across, had no other monsters or NPCs on it. The only objects of any interest were the pavilion that housed the staircase and the deciduous tree at the north end beyond it…

"...Hmm?"

His eyes shot back about six feet in the previous direction. He squinted and glared at the spot that caught his attention.

"What is it?" Asuna asked, looking curious. He took a step up the hill, then another, still holding on to her hand. As soon as he was certain of what he saw, he took off running at full speed.

"Whobful!"

He dragged her straight up the side of the hill, as she blurted out what was probably supposed to be "Whoa, be careful!" he rounded the pavilion and stood at the root of the large tree, looking up at the branches far above.

"See that?"

He removed his grip on her hand to point up above. She pointedly took her time to straighten her skirt before indulging his request, and her grumpy expression got about 20 percent brighter.

"Oh, it's growing fruit. And they look so cute!"

As she noted, near the top of the broadleaf tree hung a number of small fruit in a variety of colors. Most striking of all was their shape, which was circular with a hole in the middle–essentially, donuts. Even in the beta test, he had never seen a fruit shaped like that.

"Ahh… I see, this is kinda feels too planned, then again what else can we expect with what you said?" Ainz said with a sigh.

"Uh? What do you mean Ainz-kun?" Asuna asked.

"Kirito, use a impact type of attack on the tree" Ainz said.

Kirito closed his fist and glowed with a skill, then hit the tree shaking a few fruits off.

As soon as he inspected the fruit he smirked.

"So? What's with the fruit? Are we going to eat them? If so I want the yellow one" Asuna said

Rather than answering her, he brought the blue one up to his mouth. Asuna made a face like, he knew she was thinking of eating it, but he shot her a look of warning and popped the fruit's stem, a small protuberance half an inch long, into his mouth.

He sucked in a deep breath through his nose and blew as hard as he could into the tube stem. There was a powerful resistance at first, but then, as though a valve had opened, the air flooded into the fruit.

Bomp! The blue fruit instantly erupted into a much larger size.

The three-inch-wide fruit suddenly measured a good three feet. It was no longer a donut.

"Y-you mean...It's an...Inner tube?" Asuna marveled. He grinned and handed her the yellow fruit.

"Try it out, Asuna."

"Um...okay," she replied, and popped the stem into her pursed lips. She sucked in a deep, arching breath and closed her eyes to blow.

There was another high-pitched pop, and an inner tube appeared. Her surprise at how light it was for its size caused her to bobble it, and she jogged along, batting it up into the air like a volleyball before she could grab it tight with both hands.

"Good grief...I do not know what's going on here," she sighed.

Ainz just inflated his own, a red inner tube.

"You don't know," he replied on instinct before he could stop myself. A gaze well below the freezing point pierced the spot between his eyebrows.

"You were the one who said they weren't donuts," she snapped. "If you want to stand around cracking jokes, feel free to go do some stand-up at the teleport gate plaza."

"Wait...you mean you'll be my comedy partner?"

"Of course not! Why not team up with Kibaou?!"

For an instant, he imagined himself onstage with Kibaou, who cut into me with a fierce "Whaddaya mean?!" he quickly shook his head to clear the thought.

"Uh...no, thanks."

He brought up his menu to check the time. Fifteen minutes had already passed since we emerged on the fourth floor, thirty-five since the boss was killed.

After producing a blank scroll of parchment, he began writing a quick message. Inside, he mentioned using an impact-type skill to drop the fruit and the way to inflate them. A quick tap on the scroll made it automatically roll up, and he placed it on the ground next to the pavilion.

Left on the ground like that, its durability would eventually dwindle and cause the item to vanish, but it would last at least until Lind and Kibaou made it up the stairs.

"Well, now that we've got our floaty tubes, that changes our plan of action, doesn't it?" he noted. Asuna looked down doubtfully at the massive tube in her hands.

"...You mean that even a beginner can swim with one of these?"

"I'll try it first, of course, but I'm pretty sure we'll be fine. As long as your head doesn't go underwater, you won't lose HP while swimming. We'll make it to the main town by going through the canyon just to the south and then east. The only thing is..."

"...Is what?"

"We should probably remove our heavy equipment, just in case."

"How heavy are we talking?"

He looked her over from head to toe several times, doing some quick weight calculations before answering.

"Let's see...You should probably take off the hooded cape. The rapier and the breastplate as well, obviously, and the boots and gloves, too. Probably the vest, too...And that leather skirt's a lot heavier than you'd think. As for the tunic, well..."

"...If I take all of them off, I won't be wearing any equipment at all!"

"You REALLY need to stop with the sexual harassment nii-san"

Asuna threw the inner tube smack against his face. It bounced upward with a giddy poing and landed right around his neck.

"I assume you're going to follow your own advice and take off your black thing, the other black thing, and the black thing aside from that!"

"That's a lot of black" Ainz noted.

"Um...I'm only thinking of what will make it safest for you to swim..."

As a matter of fact, leather and cloth clothing were just as bad as metal–they took on water that added to the weight penalty. Even with our inner-tube secret weapon, it was too risky not to be able to maneuver adequately in a pinch. A pool or lake was one thing, but on a rushing river, we might easily miss our disembarking point and get washed well downstream.

Whether that honest concern of his registered to her or not, Asuna's anger cooled, and she reached out her right hand. He tossed the yellow tube back so that the hole landed on her outstretched hand, spinning the tube round and round on her arm.

"Fine...We need to go light. I get that. So...am I good with the tunic, at least?"

"Huh? Uh, yeah, I think that should work," he nodded.

She shot me one last glare. "Then let's get going."

Asuna stomped off down the hill. He hurried after her, and within moments, we were back at the riverside to the south.

Asuna stopped and turned for one last look at the pavilion on the hilltop–probably to check that no one was emerging–then opened her window. She worked quickly, turning her back so I couldn't see. First the rapier disappeared, then the cape, armor, and vest.

When the leather skirt vanished into her inventory, only the white tunic was left. It hung low in the front and back, hiding her underwear, but something about that look only seemed to add to its destructive allure…

Lost in thought, he sensed that Asuna was about to turn around, so he quickly spun ninety degrees and hit his remove equipment button twice. All of his gear, including his sword, went into storage, leaving him with a single set of underwear trunks.

He was embarrassed to be in such a revealing outfit in front of a very pretty girl around my age, but the dark red boxers almost looked like a short set of swimming trunks. He told himself that anything he felt was entirely in his own head and that it wasn't even his own body.

As he closed the window, he heard a mysterious pflrt sound. Turning his head carefully over my shoulder, he saw Asuna with her hand over her mouth, her eyes upturned and wandering. It seemed like a very strange gesture to be making.

"Pff...peh-heh...kaha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

The cool, cynical, mysterious fencer burst into uncontrolled laughter. He automatically covered his undies with the inner tube.

"Y-you don't have to laugh that hard! Besides, you already said you expected I would be taking everything off," he argued, hurt. Asuna bent over double, holding her sides.

"Aha-ha-ha-ha...I-I mean...seriously, that's just not fair, ha-ha- ha-ha!"

"N-not fair? Look...I know it's a bright color, but..."

"N-no, I'm not talking about the color...pff-hff-hff...Do you really not know what I mean? You should really take a look at your butt!"

"Wh-what...?"

He twisted around in a hurry to check the back of the boxers, but even at the peak flexibility of his avatar's back, he couldn't see his own butt. Struck by a sudden idea, he rushed to the water's edge and stuck hid butt over, hoping to catch sight of the reflection through his legs.

"Wh...what the–?!" he yelped.

The rear end of the crimson red trunks was printed with a large, flashy gold bull symbol.

He froze in shock, still in that embarrassing pose, while Asuna finally got her laughing fit under control–down to a simple chuckle.

"So where did you get that underwear? I don't remember ever seeing a pair with such a cool pattern on it at the NPC shops. Or was that your own custom design?"

Ainz was on full blown laughter still, so much so that he even had tears in his eyes.

"...I didn't buy it or design it," he grumbled, regaining his poise after the terrible shock. "This was the Last Attack bonus from the second-floor boss...Actually, the sub-boss boss, General Baran. I just assumed it was a plain design. Never occurred to me that there might be a design on the ass..."

"So if it was a bonus, does that mean it has some special effect?"

"Yep. It has a good boost to strength and a little bit of a resistance to debuffs like disease and curses..."

"Ahhh. You know, it's dreadfully boring that you and Ainz win all of the LA bonuses, but I'm glad I didn't wind up with that underwear. I don't want to have to choose between wearing a stupid cow-print man's boxers for the bonus effects or not."

"You never know–if it dropped for you, it might have been proper lady's underwear. Still with the cow design, though, I bet." As he inevitably started to imagine the fencer wearing cow panties, she wound up to hurl the inner tube at him again. He shook his head and snorted his nose, and she paused mid-windup.

"Nii-san, please I beg you don't make Asuna-nee mad, she is very scary."

Kirito sighed to clear his head of that nonsense and knelt down to stick his hand in the river. The water was extremely cold, but he would just had to suck it up and deal with it.

Asuna tested the water for herself and murmured, "Didn't you say that some floors of Aincrad are synced up to the actual season outside?"

"That's what it said in a magazine. But that article was obviously before it took us all prisoner, so I have no idea what's going on with Aincrad now..."

"Well, at the very least, this floor doesn't seem to be stuck in midwinter. I was thinking it was boring that there wasn't a more seasonal feeling here, but now I'm glad of it. So, shall we?"

Asuna put the lemon-yellow inner tube on, and I stuck the cobalt blue over my own head. With it fixed firmly in place with both hands, I told her, "Hang on for a moment while I test it out." he stuck his right leg into the water. Once he was sure that the current right at the shore wasn't too strong, he let his body sink in

As he suspected, the inflated donut fruit was quite buoyant, and it easily kept his body at the surface of the water. It didn't take too much pressure from his legs to hold his position in the current, either.

"I think it'll be fine," he said, looking up and beckoning her in. Asuna nodded nervously and very carefully entered the water. As soon as she did, the cloth tunic took on a bit of transparency and he hastily looked away, but Asuna didn't seem to notice. When her weight was supported by the inner tube, she even smiled.

Ainz then looked at the water, he remembered that girl back on high school, she was older than him, around Asuna's age, maybe a year older, he enjoyed her company and she loved to be with him, she was his surrogate big sister.

He remembered how she would come by his house and help make something to eat since his parents worked odd hours and she would take him on trips and the like.

They even went to the beach one.

He loved her very dearly, she was a beautiful girl, and she was smart too, very smart.

Her looks kinda overshadowed her smarts tough.

She was a gyaru, tanned skin, makeup and blond hair, she always looked her best, but even so she was smart enough to be on the top 50 students.

It was a shame many rumors about her circulated, mostly done by girls who were jealous of her.

But she did not let it bother her, she was upbeat, happy and helpful, a model person and one Ainz would never regret meeting.

He had asked his parents for this game due to her invitation.

"Hey ******-kun, have you heard of that new virtual reality game coming up? Why don't we sign up for it? It would be fun and maybe you can make some friends in there!" she said with a smile.

For Ainz, it was hard to be in high school, he was head over heels smarter than even his teachers, and he had a small defect as well.

He suffered from a mild case of Aspergers, a spectrum of Autism.

Due to it, he found himself alienated, not being able to fully understand other people because he wouldn't get some things such as social norms and would get sucked into his own world inside his mind time at time, we're he would run calculations about things and have ideas that he would write down for later experiment.

But she didn't care that he was a bit odd, she took him under her wing and helped him be better, showed him how to better interact with people and how to read their expressions, she also got him some books on psychology for him to further correct his flaws or at least diminish them.

She was his angel.

Then she was take from him rather cruelly and suddenly.

"Ainz?"

Asuna called out to Ainz as he stood there, looking deeply into the water with his red inner-tube on

"Sorry… just, remembering something" he apologised.

"Wow, this takes me back!"

"I-it would have been nicer to swim at the beach."

"Who knows, maybe there is an ocean here. If there is, I'll make an actual swimsuit."

"That's right, you're still working on your Tailoring skill. Will you make me one without a bull design? Like...as soon as we get to town?" he added, realizing that we might be forced to use this inner-tube travel for a while.

She grinned devilishly. "Sure. I'll even give you a choice between bear, cat and frog designs."

"...I'll...think it over. Ready to go?"

"Yep."

We spun around to join the flow.

The circular area surrounded by cliffs had two exits. One of them was the source of the powerful flow of water, so our inevitable destination was out the other end. He started kicking my legs, keeping a firm grasp on the secret-weapon floaty tube.

After about ten feet, Asuna called out from behind.

"Um...something feels weird."

"The water pressure and texture feels different, doesn't it? That's why you have to practice before you go swimming without a floatation device. Still, it feels like they've made a lot of improvements since the beta."

"I see...This does require practice, I can tell..."

"An hour of swimming, and you'll get used to it. Here's the exit–the current will get a lot stronger here, so take care not to drift too far away you two."

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than he felt Asuna jam her hand between his torso and the swim tube.

"That should keep me secure."

He turned around and asked, "Should I do the same?" The fencer thought it over for two seconds and made a face that said it was special circumstance.

"Here goes, then..."

He stuck my left hand into Asuna's tube and pulled it close.

Unless something really drastic happened, there was no way we'd get separated like this.

Ainz also grabbed and locked arms with Asuna so he wouldn't get washed away either.

We entered the ten-foot-wide canyon, firmly docked. The curves made it impossible to see what lay ahead, but he knew from his beta experience that we'd be heading into a larger canyon soon, one of the main paths of the floor.

As we picked up steam, sure enough, a much wider surface appeared ahead. It was a grand river flowing from west to east. The steep cliffs at the sides were the same, but there was a sense of liberation as the span of the water increased to over thirty feet. The speed of the flow wasn't as rapid as he feared, either.

Once we were out into the center of the river, we stopped kicking and let the water push us along.

"...The landscape really is exactly as it was in the beta. I even remember that rock there," I murmured to myself. Asuna looked around. With her every movement, I felt a pleasurable sensation on his left hand, but the iron wall that was his self-control shut it out of my thoughts.

"Hmm...I wonder why the dusty old canyons are full of water now?"

"Well, if I had to guess about things I have no way of knowing, maybe their water simulation process wasn't quite up to snuff back during the beta. If they were able to get it to a satisfactory level in the three months after that, they might have decided to change it to these rivers, I guess..."

"That makes sense, but it's a boring answer."

"S-sorry."

Asuna shrugged her shoulders, clad in the white fabric of her tunic. The way her skin was visible through the wet material wasn't in the beta, either.

He hoped that he wasn't seeing the personal touch of Akihiko Kayaba, the mad director of SAO who had trapped all ten thousand of us in his deadly game.

She took another look around the area and wondered, "If all the canyons are filled with rivers now, shouldn't there be other things that have changed aside from the landscape?"

"What do you mean?"

"Things like what the quest NPCs say or the materials you can gather...oh, and the types of monsters you face."

She suddenly stopped, silent. He understood why. If we happened into a monster encounter right now, we were both without any kind of battle equipment on. He quickly shook his head to put her at ease.

"No, we're fine. In the beta, there were hardly any monsters along the route from the staircases to the main city of the next floor..."

"Really?"

"B-besides, the pop rate on monsters in the thirty minutes after the boss is defeated is drastically reduced..."

"Drastically?" she repeated, looking skeptical. "Well, it's certainly been at least thirty minutes."

"Oh, g-good point. But so far we haven't even seen a single fish, much less any monsters. I guess that might mean a real big one gobbled them all up," he added, trying to laugh it off. Suddenly, he heard an irregular kerplunk. Asuna and Ainz heard it, too, as we. turned around simultaneously.

"If we end like that guy in the Bible on the stomach of a whale… I am PKing you" Ainz said glaring at Kirito whom he tough had jinxed us.

About ten yards behind us, something had emerged from the water.

It was a smooth, sleek, triangular fin. There was at least a foot of it sticking out from the surface of the water.

The color cursor that appeared was bright red to indicate an enemy, as if that wasn't obvious already. He heard an old familiar movie soundtrack lurch ominously into motion in his head.

"Um, is it just me, or is that...?" Asuna rasped. He didn't wait for the answer–he turned my body back around and tensed my legs for full-power kicking.

"Nee-san, pit your pretty legs into overdrive NOW!"

"Let's hurry," he suggested. For once, she didn't argue.

Ainz looked back briefly to check that the menacing fin wasn't closing in yet, then took a deep breath.

"...two, three!"

With a silent roar echoing in his head, we kicked our feet as hard as we could. An enormous splash erupted behind us, and we started racing away downstream, hard enough that the swim tube was tilted nearly vertical.

If Kirito's memory was correct, the side path–er, tributary–that led to the main city was maybe a hundred yards off. The canyon twisted right, then back to the left, and he saw an aperture in the vertical cliff face to the right, just as he expected.

"There, Asuna!"

"Got it!"

We doubled our kicking speed for the final spurt and looked back again. Fortunately the terrifying fin was no longer in…

"Eeeeep!" Kirito screeched. The gray fin splitting the surface of the water was barely a dozen feet away. If the body of our underwater pursuer matched the size of the fin, its rows of jagged teeth could be bearing down on my legs right now.

If it caught my toes, he would have to use my Quick Change mod to equip his sword and fight in the water. Meanwhile, he got his legs working up to 120 percent capacity.

"H-hey, what's going on behind us?!" Asuna croaked, too exhausted to even turn around and look."D-don't think about that! Just swim as fast as you can nee-san!"

"All right!"

We kept our grips on each other's inner tube and paddled madly with our free hands. The entrance ahead grew closer, but I could sense the fin behind us closing faster.

"P-prepare for a hard right!"

"All right!"

He gritted his teeth and flopped to the right. The moment his speed slowed with the turn, he thought he sensed something touching my foot, but our only choice at this point was to race for the goal. He put his full faith in the strength-raising effect of his bull- butt boxers as he stretched for the five-yard-wide tributary.

The side path ended in a small shoreline just twenty-five yards ahead. In the beta, it was another hill, at the top of which lay the gate to the main city. If we could just get to that white sand, we'd win this little game of tag.

"Raaaaah!"

Roaring with about the seventh-fiercest shout he'd made in the last month and a half, he raced–er, swam–through the remaining distance. The instant his toes touched the sand of the river bottom, he bolted upright and started running, pulling Asuna by the hand who in turn pulled Ainz. Even when the ground under his feet went from the soggy edge of the water to white, dry sand, he still kept going for another dozen paces before he finally turned back to look.

The dorsal fin that had been chasing us was leaping high above the water. Our fishy foe thought it could tackle us in a land battle.

I was ready to oblige and just about to hit the quick change shortcut icon on my menu, when–

"...Hwuh?" Asuna muttered foolishly as she dangled from the swim tube I still clutched with my left hand.

There was no wonder. Beneath the splendid, foot-long fin was a pop-eyed tadpole-like creature just a few inches across and maybe a foot and a half long.

It landed on the wet sand and flapped around. Apparently its dorsal fin was so large and heavy that its tiny limbs couldn't balance properly.

But a large wave rolled in and swallowed the tadpole, pulling it back into the water. Soon the fin poked out of the river again and glided back toward the main current.

"...The hell was that...?" Kirito fell to his knees in the sand with the disappointment of it all. The inner tube under his left arm came loose and fell, dropping Asuna face-first into the sand. She eventually got up and sat in the sand, seemingly too exhausted to be angry with him this time. The sand stuck to her wet skin, strands of hair plastered across her forehead and cheeks, with the soaked tunic sticking tight to her torso to complete the picture-perfect image of a model at an oceanside photo shoot. The only thing out of place was her empty gaze, which followed the triangular fin.

"...I've just decided. The next time we see that monster, I'm going to kill it, cook it, and make you eat it," she said, her manifesto delivered in a flat voice.

"Uhmmm nee-chan… I rather you don't… you might kill nii-san, that thing looks poisonous"

"Why don't...you eat it?" Kirito asked.

"It looked gross."

"Probably poisonous, too… just like Ainz said."

Well, as long as you cook it, I'll happily dig in. Maybe it'll taste like shark fin soup, Kirito thought magnanimously, getting to his feet. He extended a hand to Asuna.

"Let's put our gear back on and go into town. I don't think you'll catch a cold sitting like that, but it's doing us no good," he noted. Suddenly, she froze solid, still clutching my hand. Her face, which was pointed down at her outfit, grew much redder. Hr began to back away, struck by a foreboding premonition much like the one he got upon first seeing that dorsal fin.

But her right hand struck, quick as lightning, and grabbed my left. She pulled until she was on her feet, and with that familiar surgical precision just light enough not to cause damage, she drove her knee into my stomach in the Muay Thai style.

"Why me… What about Ainz? He got the same peep show as I did"

"cause he is a child you jerk!"

She hit him once more.

"So what kind of place is the main town of this floor?"

Asuna strode south up the white hill, the soles of her leather boots grinding against the sand. She was back in her usual outfit of hooded cape and leather skirt.

"Umm..."

He tried to recall the sight of the town. He was back in my customary black coat.

"You know what? Forget it. We'll be there in a minute, and I'd rather see it for myself."

"That's a good idea. It's one of the fun things about MMORPGs," he agreed, but the sight of the stone-built town was already flooding back into my mind from memory.

If anything, it was not a particularly memorable town. Compared to the mountain-carved city of the second floor or the monstrous baobabs of the third, this one was structurally quite plain. If there was any odd feature to mention, it was that the entrance to every house was on the second floor, for some reason. In order to get inside, you had to use a set of stone stairs.

"Oh, there's the gate!" Asuna called, her voice about 20 percent more excited than normal. A mossy stone arch was coming into view at the top of the hill. I glanced down at my window, which was still open from putting my gear back on. It was nearly two o'clock.

A few minutes after reaching the fourth floor, a few minutes at the water's edge, a few minutes with the donut tree–these all added up to about fifty minutes since we'd conquered the boss of the third floor. There must be many players down below at this exact moment, just waiting for the teleport gate to open into the new town. He felt bad that we'd taken this long to activate the gate, but they'd understand when they saw the lack of a footpath.

He followed after the fencer as she trotted up the hill with Ainz. When she reached the arch a step before he did, Asuna bubbled with excitement.

"Wow...It's so pretty here!"

Pretty?

All he remembered was a drab gray town. He strode up the last several lengths, curious now. The instant he passed through the cobblestone arch, countless lights flashed in my eyes. The plain, boring town in the squared hollow he remembered from the beta was now sparkling like a jewel.

The source of the light was the midday sun glittering off of solid blue water.

Everything that had been a stone-paved street before was now a deep waterway. The stone of the buildings had gone from dull gray to bright white, which made the entire place look like a city of chalk floating in the middle of a square lake. On sheer beauty, it easily eclipsed those of the second and third floor. No wonder Asuna exclaimed in wonder.

"...I see...This was supposed to be the finished version all along. That explains the doors on the second floor," he murmured.

My partner waved Kirito over impatiently. "Come on, hurry!"

"Coming!"

We continued along the stone path, which was now descending. On the descent, a thought occurred to me: The theme for the fourth floor had to be "waterways."

Once through the massive front gate of the town, the SAFE HAVEN label appeared in his field of view. Up ahead was a dock a good hundred feet long, complete with a number of small boats helmed by NPCs.

"Oooh, look at the gondolas! It's just like Venice!" Asuna marveled. He started to wonder if she had only seen Venice in pictures, or if she'd actually been there, then snapped myself out of it. It didn't feel right to wonder about her personal life.

The street ended at the dock, so we needed to use a gondola to get anywhere in town. He suppose we had the option of taking those swim tubes back out of storage, but Asuna's eyes were currently gondola shaped, so he took the hint that my idea would be shot down instantly. He didn't exactly relish the thought of showing off my cow boxers, either, even if there weren't any other actual players in town yet.

The gondolas at the dock came in a wealth of sizes, from small one-person boats (aside from the NPC gondolier) up to large cruisers that could seat ten or more. A number of copper plaques listed the prices, indicating that a two-person gondola cost fifty col for a one time use. It was good to know that the price would be the same no matter where in town we were, but he didn't like the idea of paying fifty col every time we wanted to visit a new place.

For the moment, we didn't have a better option.

"Will this one do?" he asked, pointing to a nearby ivory-white two-seater. Asuna gave it a serious examination and nodded. We headed down the steps of the dock and hopped into the gondola, Asuna first. The burly gondolier, in his traditional straw hat and striped shirt, gave us a friendly greeting.

"Welcome to Rovia, travelers! Fifty col, wherever you want to go!"

"Take us to the teleporter plaza, then," he answered, then wondered if an NPC would understand that terminology. Fortunately, he tipped the brim of his cap in acknowledgment.

"Off we go!" he shouted. A purple payment window appeared briefly, then vanished. The gondolier gave one push of his long oar. The white ship slid away, and at the prow, Asuna pulled her hood back and cheered again.

The gondola left the dock at the north end of the city behind and headed down the cross-shaped main street that split the town into four quarters. Er, no, not a main street, a main–

"Hey, what's the English word for a waterway?"

"Channel!" Ainz answered.

The main channel of town.

Boats of all colors filled the wide canal, which was a good sixty feet wide, with shops large and small lining the sides. The displays of weapons, armor, and items were very tempting to Kirito, but it would not be easy to take detours in this situation. No doubt we could change destinations on the fly, but he had a feeling that every time we stepped off the boat, it would cost another fifty to get on again. On top of that, he didn't even know if the gondola would wait for us there.

He told myself that we had to prioritize activating the town's teleporter and asked the gondolier a different question.

"Will this boat take us outside of the town as well?"

Fortunately, this question was part of his recognized list, and he gave a proper answer as he rowed the powerful oar.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I only work here, in the town of Rovia."

"Would another ship take us out of town?"

"Sorry, I can't answer that."

Either the question didn't fit his recognized parameters, or there was a reason he couldn't answer it. There were plenty of other things he wanted to know, but based on my experience in the beta, the most in-depth information on a town had to come from the right NPC–like a bearded village elder, a fishy informant, or a know-it-all child, like the one who is his partner.

For a moment, he was reminded of the Dark Elf knight and her stunningly realistic vocabulary, but there were things to be done before he could dwell on my loneliness.

We'll open the gate, take a short rest, then go about collecting information, he told myself.

A large wharf appeared ahead. It was the teleport gate plaza at the center of the town. The gondolier drew our boat level to the dock at the southern end of the square with expert skill, then put his hand to his cap again.

"Safe and sound! Hope to see you again!"

We thanked him and stepped off the boat. As he feared, the gondola immediately pulled away from the wharf and headed back to the entrance of the town. But there were other gondolas at the dock here, so we could use them on the way back. Opening the teleporter quickly was the matter at hand.

When he turned, he found that Asuna still had stars floating in her eyes.

"Nee-chan, why don't you pose so I can take a screenshot of you? This is a prime place for a photoshoot" Ainz said.

She smiled and poses for Ainz to take a shoot of her and then asked Kirito to be on the shot, which he complied but looked grumpy.

Then Kirito took a picture of Ainz and Asuna.

"Well enough of that we need to activate the portal" Kirito said.

"That was so, so much fun!"

"Um...I'm glad you enjoyed it."

"Let's ride another one back!" she said eagerlt

"I...don't think we have another option."

Kirito almost had to wonder if she really was the same cool headed, snarky fencer he'd been working with all this time.

An hour after defeating the boss of the third floor, Asuna, Ainz and himself activated the teleport gate for the fourth floor and retreated to a corner of the plaza to watch the swarm of players that came barreling through the wavering blue portal.

The rush of tourists, here for the custom of "town opening," stood around in clumps within the plaza and marveled at the beauty of the town, but more than a few seemed to have a clear purpose in mind already. Middle-of-the-pack swordsmen who headed for the market area in search of better weapons, merchants after more valuable items to stock, and even a short- haired girl with a blacksmith's hammer at her waist, poring over the map of the town.

Glad to see that there were more fighters trying to catch up to the frontier group and crafters offering player support, he joined Asuna and Ainz in entering a small inn at the outer edge of the plaza.

We got two rooms this time, to avoid the mistake that happened in Zumfut down on the third floor, but we needed to have a meeting about our plans for the near future before we could lie down for a rest, and therefore, ended up on the sofas in my room. As usual, Kirito had to be wary that her unnecessary danger radar was at max sensitivity, but with the gondola effect still active in her expression, her features were relaxed.

He took a sip of tea from the set that was left in the room and looked at Asuna across from me.

"Do you...like ships?"

She blinked a few times and smiled shyly.

"Not ships as a whole, really...but I've always wanted to ride in a gondola. I just never thought that dream would come true in Aincrad."

"I see. So it's not all bad that the fourth floor got filled with water, then," he noted. She seemed to realize something.

"Oh...so there weren't any of these canals and channels in the beta?"

"Correct. It was just a boring, dusty, gray town. I barely remember anything about it."

"Then I like this one much more. I know the gondolas don't go out of town, so we'll probably have to deal with more swimming...but I can deal with it."

Despite being totally entranced with the boat ride, she'd still taken in every word of the conversation he had with the gondolier. He couldn't help but smile at her capable nature.

"That's right. As for what's next, we should take a break, then resupply, repair, and replace our stuff here in town; accept all the available quests; and find out as much info as we can about the fourth floor. Eventually we'll have to leave the town for other locations, which means using those swim tubes again..."

The dreamy look steadily faded from Asuna's eyes, replaced by her typical cool expression.

"I can handle the swimming–the problem is monsters. That lizard-tadpole thing earlier was a bit of a letdown when the body was barely larger than the fin, but it still had a bright red cursor, right? That meant it was a pretty high level..."

"Exactly. And obviously that won't be the only species of monster on the floor...We'd better try to outfit ourselves for underwater combat."

He only had a tiny bit of experience with that from the beta. Not only did a player have to deal with taking and holding breaths, but the resistance from the water was fierce as well. Fighters with big weapons had to be able to handle those weapons, while those with smaller weapons could only be so agile in the water. The most suited to water were spear-type weapons, with their long reach and jabbing attacks that met with minimal resistance from the water. And neither Asuna nor he had any spear skills, he turned to Ainz who was currently unpacking a trident.

Seems like he had a spear skill after all.

It was unrealistic to start training now, but Asuna could do her best with the spear-like jabbing of her rapier, and I could limit myself to thrusting skills…

Suddenly, Asuna set down her tea and shouted.

"Oh, right! I forgot, I need to make a swimsuit!"

"Y-you were serious about that?"

"Of course. I think I saw them selling some at the shops, but it would be a waste to spend that money when I've already got the Tailoring skill."

"W-well, you've got a point...Can I ask you to make me some swim trunks, too? Nice plain ones, no bull mark."

"Should I design it with that finned tadpole instead?"

Kirito was going to plead against it, but something else occurred to me first.

"Uh, wait, hang on."

"Wh-what do you mean? I haven't even started."

"No, I mean, I'm thinking..."

He squinted, trying to pull the relevant information out of that conversation we'd had about tailoring back in the Dark Elf camp on the third floor.

On the second floor, he'd seen the mountain of underwear that came out of Asuna's inventory. Those weren't meant to be worn, but were a by-product of her training to raise her skill proficiency.

Afterward, she'd mentioned that she had already taken the Tailoring skill out of its slot.

"...No, it won't work."

"What won't?"

"You don't have Tailoring in one of your slots anymore, do you? This might come as a shock if you didn't know already...but once you remove a skill from its slot, the proficiency goes back down to zero," he explained.

She nodded without batting an eye. "I might be a beginner, but even I know that. Besides, it pops up that warning when you remove the skill from the slot."

"Oh...good. Er, I mean, are you going to train it up from nothing again?"

She shook her head, exasperated. "I might be a hard worker, but I'm not that patient. As a matter of fact..."

Asuna opened her game window, a skeptical look on her face. She flipped over to her inventory storage and materialized a small item.

The small crystal bottle shaped like a nut thunked down onto the coffee table. There was a small amount of faintly glowing blue liquid inside the thick, transparent bottle.

"...What's this?"

"You didn't see one in the beta?"

"No...not that I remember."

I reached out to pick up the vial, but she quickly cut me off.

"Stop, if you don't know what it is! Don't you dare open it up."

"I-I know, I was just gonna read the description."

"I'm serious about that!"

Her stern admonition made me just want to pop it open and gulp it down in one swift movement, but he wasn't trying out to be a stage comedian, so he behaved himself . Carefully picking it up so as not to disturb the glass lid, he was surprised at how heavy it was for being just three inches long. He tapped the side of the glass with a fingertip and examined the properties window that appeared.

"It's called a...Crystal Bottle of Kales'Oh? Never heard of it. Let's see here...This bottle allows you to save the proficiency of any skill currently equipped in a skill slot...Aha..."

About three seconds passed.

"Wh...wha...wha...huwhaaaattttuh?!"

The shock wave of his scream put cracks in the walls, tears in the down blanket, and shattered every window in the room.

Okay, in reality, it just caused a mere ripple on the surface of the teacup, but it certainly felt like it had that kind of destructive impact. His mouth was frozen open in shock. Asuna pulled the bottle out of my fingers and fiddled with the settings in the properties window, then pro0mptly pulled out the stopper.

The liquid at the bottom of the vial turned into a blue light that floated up into the air. She took a deep breath and sucked it into her nostrils, then breathed yellow light back into the bottle before replacing the cap. The contents now looked like lemon oil. She put the bottle back onto the table and smiled at me.

"Now my Tailoring skill is back to its previous level, and my Sprint skill level is saved in the bottle."

"...I...I see...Erm, so, if I might ask, where did you get that item...?"

"It was kind of chaotic so I couldn't tell, but I think it was that one time. Remember right after we reached the third floor, and we helped Kizmel fight that Forest Elf knight? I think it must have dropped from the elf knight."

"Ohhh," he nodded, still not over the shock. Now that she mentioned it, Kales'Oh was the name of the Forest Elf nation that once existed down on the surface, according to Kizmel's tale.

In fact, that overwhelmingly powerful elf warrior–strong enough that players should normally be unable to win, as it was a story-event battle–had dropped a number of fairly rare items for me as well. But he was so startled by Kizmel's very un-NPC-like dialogue that I never went back to check the loot out.

Ainz had recorded the code of the item to reproduce it later when he went back to the first floor, in there he would make about a hundred copies, a few for himself and the rest to sell as a limited quantity product, this would net him quite a bit of Col, as the items they got from defeating that forest elf were supposed to be unobtainable, but due to Ainz messing with the story data outcome the "scripted loose scenario" turned from assured defeat to posible victory, but still a chance of defeat, only it wouldn't be assured loose situation.

Asuna couldn't have figured out the properties of the crystal bottle until later that night at the earliest. We didn't describe or ask for each other's skill choices or inventory contents unless it was absolutely necessary, so a week had passed without Kirito ever knowing that Asuna had such a tremendously valuable item, now that he thought about it where did Ainz got that spear?

"Are you just going to sit there in shock the whole time? If we're done talking, can I go to my room and start making swimsuits now?" she asked. It broke me out of his paralysis effect.

"Oh, uh, ummm," he mumbled, trying to organize his thoughts. He held up my hands. "Just...just hang on. There are a few more things I want to be sure of."

"...All right, but why don't you settle down first?"

"Y-yeah."

He gulped down my cold tea and let out a long breath. The Crystal Bottle of Kales'Oh was still sitting right there on the table. He stared at the sparkling yellow liquid made of pure skill proficiency.

The liquid filled about one-twentieth of the capacity of the vial.

Assuming that Asuna's Sprint skill had been around 50 or so, and the amount of liquid directly correlated to the proficiency, then this bottle could even save a completed skill at the maximum proficiency level of 1,000.

He took one more deep breath and looked up at her "Have you told any other player aside from me and Ainz about this bottle?"

The fencer shrugged and shook her head.

"You're sure? Not even Argo?"

"Listen, you've been traveling with me for the entire week since I got this item. When would I have had a chance to meet with Argo behind your back?"

"Oh...good point..."

He felt relief flooding into me, but Asuna was still shooting me a skeptical look.

"What's with this overblown reaction? All this bottle does is let you put your skill level in and take it out–you still have to do the work to raise it. You're acting like drinking it will automatically give you one hundred skill points or something. Is it that big of a deal?"

He was both stunned by what my temporary partner was saying and resigned–apparently this was just how non-RPG players thought, even Ainz looked at Asuna with a bewildered look. He tried his best to make her understand his surprise and apprehension.

"The thing is...like I said, you lose your skill progress in SAO when you remove a skill from its slot. So at level twenty like I am now, I can only improve four skills at any one time."

"I know that. You've got One-Handed Swords, Martial Arts, Search, and...Hiding, is it?"

She knows!

But it was too late to be alarmed by that at this point. He cleared his throat and continued.

"Y-yeah, anyway, I'm seriously wondering if I should remove Hiding so that I can equip Swimming, instead."

"There's a Swimming skill? What happens if you use it?"

"You can swim faster, there's not as much water resistance, and you can move longer underwater. It'll be a real help on this floor, but I probably won't end up using it. The terrain is bound to change on the next floor, so I would be giving up on all the hard work I've put into Hiding, just for the sake of this one floor."

"Ahh...So with that bottle there, you could save one of your other skills where it already is and temporarily set the Swimming skill in its slot just for this floor."

"Exactly. Every single player who comes to this floor is going to have to face that hard choice. If word gets out that there's a player with a magic bottle that can save your skill progress, you're going to get harassed by people looking to buy it, snooping around, and prying for information, and so on."

There was another much darker possibility that he could see arising, but he chose not to mention it. Asuna reached out and picked up the crystal bottle to stare at it, appreciating its true value for the first time.

"I see...Now that I think about it, Nezha from the Legend Braves could have used this bottle to earn Martial Arts without having to give up on One-Handed Swords. Since it effectively gives you an extra skill slot, I guess I can see why people would make a big fuss about it..."

As usual, she latched onto concepts very quickly for a beginner. Asuna looked up and went on, speaking faster than usual.

"What if we just went ahead and released all the information we have about this thing? If we tell Argo, she'll put it in her strategy guides, right? Then no one will need to come ask us."

"Yeah...I'm not saying that we should cover up its existence...but..."

He leaned over and rested his chin on his folded hands, thinking hard.

"The problem is, the Forest Elven Hallowed Knight that you got the bottle from is only available to fight during that event battle in the Forest of Wavering Mists on the third floor, at this point. You basically only get the one opportunity. I'm guessing that the major players on the front line like Kibaou's Aincrad Liberation Squad and Lind's Dragon Knights Brigade have already beaten that event in the normal way by now..." Ainz said.

"I see...So it's kind of too late to publicize that info now."

"Yeah. Plus, it's not like it's easy to beat him, even if you still have the opportunity..." Kirito said.

"We managed to do it, didn't we?" she said simply.

He had to admit that she was right, but he had doubts. He scratched at his bangs and admitted something that had been on my mind all along. "...How do you suppose we were able to beat that Forest Elf, anyway...?"

Ainz looked away from them, trying to not get caught.

In the short silence that followed, he remembered a conversation he had with Kizmel in the bathing tent of the Dark Elf outpost.

She claimed that she'd been having a strange dream lately.

In the dream, Kizmel was fighting a powerful Forest Elf knight. In the middle of the duel, he showed up with a number of companions, none of which were Asuna. We helped her fight, but no one was able to handle the Forest Elf, and the group fell one after the other–until Kizmel was forced to release the protection of the Holy Tree to save our lives, thus perishing herself.

Aside from the questions of why an NPC would dream or if an NPC actually "slept" in the true sense of the word, one thing stood out–the content of that dream was eerily similar to my experience with the "Jade Key" quest during the beta test of SAO.

Kizmel was an extremely special NPC with a highly advanced AI. That much was clear.

Was that the reason that she maintained memory from as far back as the beta test? Or was it the presence of that memory that turned her special?

Was it because of Kizmel that Asuna and I were able to beat the deadly Forest Elf knight in the retail game at all...?

"...I think it's because we all tried our hardest," Asuna murmured. I looked up with a start. "You and Kizmel and I all fought as hard as we could, believing we could win. That was the hardest I've concentrated in any battle since I came to Aincrad–even more than the floor bosses."

"Yeah, we are just that awesome" Ainz said.

As a gamer, he was used to the idea that an "auto-lose event" could never be overturned, no matter how hard one tried, but hr couldn't come out and put that into words, something was wrong but he could not point it.

"...Yeah...exactly. You two were really something during that fight. And after putting that much effort into it, you'd expect to get a really great piece of loot or two out of the deal."

"Just so you know, I wasn't doing it expecting to be rewarded with items!" she retorted, raising a fist. Kirito laughed and apologized.

Sword Art Online wasn't like all the other RPGs I'd ever played. It was a deadly game with no log-out button, and the world's first VRMMORPG. If he stuck to his preconceived notions of how things should be, he was missing out on what was in front of his own eyes. He gave Asuna a serious look and asked, "Can we at least take some time to think about what to do with the crystal bottle info? Like I said, I don't want to just keep it a secret forever. But as long as I know it might be a source of trouble, I want to keep your safety first and foremost."

He expected her to bite back with a snarky reassurance that she wasn't a newbie anymore and could take care of herself, and he even went so far as to prepare a further statement to back his case.

But Asuna only looked back at me in silence, then turned away in a huff. He could just barely see her mouth move behind the long hanging bangs.

"...Well, if that's what you want to do, then fine."

"Oh...y-you're okay with that?"

He was so surprised by her answer that he wondered what she was thinking and leaned over onto my right side to see around the side of her face. Instead, Asuna turned harder to her left, evading his gaze until she was seated completely backward, facing into the sofa.

What's going on here?

He had a feeling that if he didn't take it easy, the fencer was going to explode, so he sat back up properly and said, "A-anyway, let's take a little rest now. How about we meet up at...the café on the first floor at six o'clock?"

Asuna nodded silently and slipped off of the sofa, her back still facing him. She got up and placed the Crystal Bottle of Kales'Oh into her inventory, then left the room without ever facing him.

What button of hers had he pressed?

He sank into a sitting position.

"You done goofed" Ainz said, making Kirito grunt in annoyance.

Five seconds after he had removed all his gear, sent a single instant message, and laid down on the bed by the window, he fell asleep.

When the alarm he set rudely woke me up, the light in the room was the color of sunset. He slowly sat up and pulled open the curtain to look down at the teleport plaza of Rovia from his second-story vantage point.

Ainz was rooming with Asuna, as she enjoyed dotting on the small child.

In just three hours, the square had filled up with countless players. Frontline members peered at the NPC shop wares, tourists noshed on food from the carts, and romantic-looking couples sat on the benches facing the water.

This was the forty-fifth day since the game of death had begun. It felt both long and short, but he considered it a good thing if matters had settled down enough for people to consider themselves a couple–this was his most magnanimous opinion as a frustrated middle school boy. Meanwhile, he noticed a particularly long line at the gondola dock to the south.

"Ugh...Crap, I forgot," he moaned, kneeling on the bed.

He should have expected this. There were only so many gondolas, so if too many players appeared, it was inevitable that a line would form. He had to get accustomed to the idea that moving around Rovia would take much more time than usual.

At the very least, he was relieved to see that so many people could be crammed into a limited space and lining up politely without any trouble.

No sooner had the thought occurred than a group of five armed players attempted to push their way to the front of the line and get on one of the larger gondolas that was just pulling in. Naturally, the group that was being cut protested. But the large, greatsword-wielding leader of the offending group was shouting back just as angrily.

He couldn't hear them from his distant second-story inn room, but I

He could imagine what was being said.

"We're fighting to liberate you normal players! Our needs should come first!"

The tourists in their simple cloth gear had no choice but to unhappily let them go. The man and his partners brandished their gleaming metal equipment in a show of might and leaped onto the gondola.

As the boat left the wharf, he muttered to himself , "That was a bad move, Haf."

The quintet that had cut in line were all wearing blue doublets.

They were members of the Dragon Knights Brigade, a frontline guild that had just been established on the third floor. And the man with the greatsword at the lead was Hafner, one of the guild's officers.

They'd probably just finished resupplying and opening quests in town and were ready to start conquering the floor in earnest. He could understand how warriors on a mission might be frustrated with waiting around in line behind tourists with no greater purpose.

But if there was one thing to avoid, it was the frontline population acting like it was special and earning the disdain of everyone else. One never knew if those who hadn't been swinging swords yet might one day emerge from the safety of town and reach the frontier of their own will and ability.

In fact, if that never happened, we couldn't beat the game. The frontier group was barely fifty strong at this point and would certainly get bogged down eventually. We needed as many people as possible helping to advance the human progress in the game.

He stifled a sigh and checked the time. Only three minutes left until our meet-up at six o'clock.

Crawling out of the bed, he outfitted himself in all the usual gear and plodded out of the room. When he came face-to-face with Asuna and Ainz for the first time in three hours below, she was back to her usual cool attitude.

"Sorry about the wait," he said, taking the seat across from her. There were no other players in the café aside from us–clearly the view paled in comparison to what was outside.

"We just got here," she said flatly, then slid the menu over to me. He saw that aside from drinks and sweets, they had a few items that looked like fish.

"...Should we get an early dinner here?"

"I want to get something to eat from the carts outside."

"Okay. Drinks only, then...or would you rather just leave?"

"That's fine with me."

It did seem like there was something different about her, but we hadn't been working together long enough for him to be sure, so he set it aside as he got up. It was poor form to meet up at a coffee shop in the real world and leave without ordering anything, but the NPC waiters here just watched us off without a complaint.

We left the inn without checking out. The underside of the floor above was somewhere between rose and indigo. Within another thirty minutes, it would be properly dark out.

But if anything, the gondola line on the other end of the square was even longer. The stone buildings were lit up with lanterns whose light reflected off the water in an entrancing display. Perhaps nighttime was considered the peak of the boating business here.

"Well, uh, you can see the line...Still want to queue up? Or should we forget the gondolas and just swim for ourselves–"

He stopped as soon as he felt the cold glare from under her hood.

"...Or not. I guess we should line up for a trip to the market area."

"But first I want to visit the food carts."

"Oh, right."

We made our way over to the east end of the square, where five or six stylish little carts were arranged. From what he could tell, only three of them were selling food that might make for a dinner. There was a meal set of fried fish and cooked veggies, a seafood pizza with squid and shellfish, and a panini sandwich with grilled fish and herbs.

"I see. So the main style of food on this floor is fish," Ainz noted.

"Don't like fish?" Asuna asked

Ainz shook his head. "Not really… fish and I don't get along, once I got a spine stuck on my throught and… well…."

"You know you're not going to get much choices in a town like this."

"I know… I think I'll go for the panini. What about you nee-chan?"

"That sounds good to me, too."

"Same for me"

"You wanna wait on the bench while I buy them?" Kirito offered.

Asuna gave him another upward glance beneath her hood, then turned away.

What's going on here? It feels like the time when she ate the cream bread down in Tolbana on the first floor.

The paninis were twelve col each at the cart. I bought three and returned to the bench. He handed one to Asuna, and one to Ainz, then stopped her when he noticed that she was opening her trade window to pay him for the sandwich.

"No, it's on me."

"...Why?"

"Because, um...Oh, because I'll owe you for making me the swimsuit."

Fortunately, she nodded and accepted his offer. She was still acting weird, but at least she wasn't angry with him.

He was just about to sit down next to her, shaking my head in confusion, when someone's hand snuck out from the darkness behind us and a teasing voice sounded in his ear.

"Thankee kindly, Kii-boy. I've been hungry."

He wasn't sure whether to play it cool ("Your Hiding's as good as ever") or be honest and reject her ("No! That's my dinner!"), so the result had a bit from both columns.

"Your Hiding's as good as ever, but that's my dinner and no you can't have any!"

"Hmph. So you'll buy one for her, but not for me. I see how it is."

"Wha...? I...You heard what I said, that was thanks for her making me an item! It has nothing to do with showing favor on anyone!"

A short female player materialized out of the darkness wearing a plain beige hooded cape much like Asuna's. Her eyes were hidden behind her curly bangs, but the three whiskers drawn with face paint on either cheek left no uncertainty about who it was.

Argo the Rat, information dealer, leaped over the back of the bench with a grin on her face and sat next to Asuna. She looked to her left and lifted the hood back a bit.

"Evening, A-chan. Good work with the third-floor boss and the fourth-floor gate."

"G-good evening, Argo. Um...would you like some of this?" Asuna asked, offering up her own panini. Argo cackled and shook her hand in denial.

"No, no, I appreciate the offer. Eat up."

"Uh, okay..."

Asuna looked as if she wasn't sure whether Argo was hungry or not. Kirito sighed and decided to set her at ease.

"Don't worry about it, Asuna. Her Teasing skill is the best in Aincrad."

"Wouldn't that count as an outside system skill?" Ainz asked as Kirito nodded, Ainz had been learning a lot about the system… too much, they had not talked about that.

"Teasing...?"

Asuna recognized something about this scene, looking up at him, then at the panini in her hands, then to Argo on her right- hand side.

"I-it's not like that, Argo! We are not, at all, in any way, like that!"

"Nyo-ho-ho, I get it, I get it," she laughed creepily.

Kirito plopped down on the bench to Argo's right and quietly clinched the message. "It's true. Don't go selling any funny rumors."

"Why, that hurts. You know it's not my style to sell rumors and gossip."

"Yeah, sure. Anyway, the fact that you're here must mean you've got all the intel you needed."

"You bet. In fact, it took just three hours from your message to look up what you wanted, so I figured that might earn me a free meal in addition to my fee, but..."

She had him over the coals. After all, he'd told her he wanted it ASAP, just before he passed out for a quick nap.

"F-fine, fine. What do you want?"

"Gosh, I could sure go for a nice cheesy pizza," she started.

Before the sentence could finish, Kirito was about to dash for the pizza cart but was stopped by Ainz.

"How about I cover this, since you got me the panini?"

Ainz had dashed at a sprint to the seafood pizza cart, bought one with three times the cheese, then bolted back to the bench.

"Sorry about all the trouble. This is a mere token of our gratitude."

He presented the pizza with a flourish and Argo grinned back at me.

"Why thank you Ainz-bou, you are so adorable."

"Then let's talk as we eat...Chow that down before it gets cold, Asuna," Kirito called to the fencer on the other side of Argo. The four of us said grace and started scarfing down our Italian-style dinner.

Kirito nor Ainz had never eaten a true panini in real life, but between the crispy and chewy bread, the fragrantly grilled whitefish, and the herb-scented tomato sauce, it seemed like this was probably a pretty good re-creation of one. Now if only the main ingredients were a nice thick slab of meat and a thick teriyaki-and-mayo sauce for Kirito and some nice red sauce and meat extravaganza for Ainz…

Both Asuna and Argo were hungry, and we each gobbled down half the meal before finally stopping to breathe.

Before Kirito could prompt her, Argo pulled out a scroll of parchment from one of the many pouches at her waist and held it out between her fingers.

"Normally I'd charge you an extra fee for quick service...but I'll go with the normal rate this time as thanks for the pile o' cheese lil Ainz-bou bought me. That's five hundred col."

Kirito pulled out the gold coin he'd stored in his coat pocket for just this occasion and handed it to Argo. Tapping the scroll she handed over caused it to automatically unfurl.

"What information did you request from her?" Asuna asked, leaning over. He showed her the illustration on the scroll: a detailed map of Rovia. Argo herself hadn't drawn this map, however. Anyone could produce the same thing by simply walking all over the town, then copying the map data to a scroll item like this.

The difference was that Argo's map had about twenty exclamation point markers placed all over the town. This was what the five hundred col paid for.

"Are those...all of the quest NPCs?" Asuna wondered, as astute as ever. He nodded silently and got back an exasperated glance in return.

"Well, I hate to be hard on Argo, since she did all the work...but you could find all of this stuff just by walking around town. And we'll need to visit these spots to start the quests anyway."

"That was my assumption as well. And didn't you already finish all of these quests in the beta, Kii-boy?"

"That's the thing," he murmured, his mouth full of panini. "I feel like the longer I walk around town, the more my old memories will fade...I just wanted to be able to see the locations all at once like this."

"...Ohhh?"

There was more than a hint of entertainment in Argo's voice. He chose to stare at the map of the town rather than indulge her.

As he suspected, the layout of the town itself was exactly the same. He tapped each icon in turn, remembering the dried, dusty form the settlement used to take. With each tap appeared a quick quest rundown written by Argo.

Once he had examined all of them, he pointed out a single marker in the northwest corner of the map.

"This one."

"...What about it?" Asuna asked, suspicious. He grinned at her.

"This quest wasn't there in the beta. This is the spot that's the key to this town...no, to conquering this entire floor."

"If you get all the intel on this quest, I'll buy it off you," Argo had offered, and with a lingering whiff of cheese, she melted back into the darkness.

"She could give Batman a run for his money with that vanishing act" Ainz said with a smirk.

Asuna blinked, not understanding the reference, however Kirito did and chuckled at that.

Asuna, Ainz and Kirito finished the last scraps of our sandwiches and got up from the bench to watch the dock to the south. The line looked a little bit shorter than before, but it was still a good thirty-minute wait.

Thanks to the power of a full stomach and a conversation with Argo, Asuna had recovered her normal mood. She noted, "I don't mind lining up...but that dock has a terrible system."

"Oh? What about it?"

"The little two-seaters and the big ten-person boats both stop at the same place. It's taking extra time because one person will end up riding the big gondola, and then the larger groups have to split up and take multiple smaller ones. They ought to at least split the people up into three different lines."

"Good point. So...should we propose that idea?"

"...That's not really my style."

"I don't know. You've got that class rep-style attitude, so I bet people will..."

Kirito let the rest of the sentence hang when he felt Asuna's chilling laser beam stare on his face.

The nighttime sights of Rovia were truly enchanting now, as the colorful lamps and window lights of the town glimmered off the surface of the dark water. Even the gondolas full of smiling players had lanterns of their own, sitting on the prow and stern of the small ones and the overhanging roofs of the larger ones. The sight of the gondolas crossing in the canals was so beautiful that…

"–Ah!"

Kirito snapped his fingers, a sudden idea lighting up his brain.

"Wh-what?"

"This way! I'll explain later."

He prodded Asuna's back and trotted toward the wharf at the north end, the opposite direction from the dock. There was no boat landing here, so the drop from the piled stone fence to the water was quite far. But that also meant the gondolas were floating quite low.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Asuna muttered, trying to back away. I grabbed the hem of her cape tight.

"Don't worry, it's fine."

"It is not fine! I don't like it!"

"You'll be perfectly all right."

"Do it by yourself if you're so keen on it!" she shouted.

He glanced left and right. Within a few seconds, one of the large twelve-seat gondolas came chugging closer on the right. Luckily enough, another gondola of the same size was approaching from the left.

"Oh I see… this is gonna be fun" Ainz said as he caught Kirito's idea.

Both calculated where the two would pass, given that traffic seemed to move on the right side here, then moved us three yards to the left and five yards back.

"I'll give you a five-second countdown."

"I-I told you, I don't want to do this!"

"That's funny, Asuna, I could have sworn you had a higher agility than me."

"Rgh...y-you know that's not fair to bring up..."

"This should be easy for you, Asuna. I mean, since you have the Sprint skill and everything."

"But I just switched that one out...Arrgh, oh, fine!"

"And five, four, three, two, one..."

At zero, we started running. Kirito hit the low fence in stride and launched off of it with his right foot. Ainz landed on the oar and quickly jumped to the next gondola using both his Strenght to enhance his kick and agility for his speed.

All the traffic in the canals of Rovia traveled on the right side, so he leaped and stretched out for the gondola approaching on the left. Once they had just barely landed by their tiptoes, the gondola shook fiercely and the passengers below shouted in alarm. W3 yelled a quick apology and cut across the roof to leap again.

In midair, Kirito and Ainz glanced back to see that Asuna was keeping up. She had better jumping power than Kirito did, so she should be able to make any jump that he did, but he was secretly relieved when he landed on the second gondola coming from the right.

Ainz however looked like a pro making acrobatic moves, using minimal movement as he jumped into another gondola at max speed while making the gondola rock about as little as possible.

The people riding this gondola must have already noticed the display of ninja acrobatics going on overhead, as they applauded and whistled at the sight of Asuna leaping gracefully through the night sky. Glad that we weren't being yelled at, we raced across the roof and jumped for a third time.

But…

"Ugh!"

The far bank was farther away than Kirito thought. He scrambled my limbs in midair, stretching my arms as far as I could, until he just barely caught the lip of the wall with my fingertips.

As my entire body slammed up against the wall, he heard a light footfall over my head. When I looked up, he saw Asuna standing safe and sound above me, her hands on her hips and a disappointed look on her face.

"If you weren't sure you could make it, you shouldn't have tried," she scolded. He couldn't be bothered to answer her. He had a very sudden and clear understanding of exactly why the passengers on the gondola had been cheering, and Ainz was the one to try to delicately point it out.

"Um, nee-chan?"

"...What?"

"You're, um, in a bit of danger...angularly speaking."

"What do you mean...?"

"Uhmmm you are wearing a skirt… so when you jump…"

Asuna's face lit up in a crimson red hue

She quickly put her hands down over the hem of her skirt, then smiled at Kirito who was still hanging bellow her for some reason and lifted one of her boots.

He understood why next.

"Better climb up quick before I step on you."

"O-okay, okay, I'm coming up!"

He scrambled up the wall in a hurry.

"You should wear biker shorts or spats nee-chan, that would save you some embarassment"

Rovia had a square layout with main channels that intersected– technically, the teleport square was in the center of town, so there was no actual intersection–and split the town into quarters.

If north was the "top" of the town, then the top right was the sightseeing area, with a park, a plaza, and an outdoor theater.

The bottom right was the market area, crammed full of a variety of businesses. The bottom left was the lodging area with inns large and small. And the top-left quadrant, where we were now, was the downtown area where all the NPCs lived.

Naturally, each quarter had smaller canals that split it up, requiring the use of a boat to get around farther. But circling gondolas passed by every stretch of water, so we decided to flag down a two-seat boat, Ainz would take a single one on his own.

This time, we gave the NPC gondolier coordinates instead of a name, paid the fee by an automatic half-and-half calculator, then wearily sat down in the two seats.

The fencer in the miniskirt was in a much better mood the instant she sat down at the prow, and she began taking in the sights of the town with sparkles in her eyes. This was the most plain of all the areas in Rovia, but even the practical, homey residential sector had its own charm.

Children played with toy boats at the waterside of their entrance porch, while a mother and baby bird somewhere between a duck and a seagull swam past. Evening sounds and smells wafted through kitchen windows, and warm orange light shone off the water.

"Ooh, that house is for sale!"

Kirito looked where Asuna was pointing and saw a small two-story house with a wooden FOR SALE sign.

"Hey, you're right. So there are player houses here."

"I wonder how much it costs," she wondered, her eyes sparkling even brighter.

He snorted wryly. "I wouldn't look at the price if I were you. You can only be disappointed."

"I know it'll be expensive. But I'm free to keep it in mind as something I can get if I work hard enough!"

"Su-sure, that's true...but I wouldn't recommend buying in this town. It's a fun, pretty place for sightseeing, but actually living here would be tough when it comes to getting around," he noted. Asuna took that advice to heart surprisingly fast.

"Good point. I wonder what the people here do for their daily shopping and such."

"Maybe they just swim around when we're not watching."

"Come on, don't ruin the illusion. But...If I do decide to get a house, I'll save up for a normal one with a view of a lake," she announced, then faced forward again.

He was more of the opinion that the money you could use to buy a player house was better spent on cheap inn lodgings and better gear, but given Asuna's proactive nature, he could certainly see her landing a lakeside residence someday. Maybe she would even let me crash on her couch...No, definitely not.

Meanwhile, the gondola wove its way through the narrow channels right and left and deposited us at our destination in under ten minutes. Ainz arrived a minute after then.

Beyond the tiny dock was a very large but very old building. Aside from the large double doors facing the water, it appeared to be just a plain old house without any notable features. He approached the building cautiously and peered into a dirty window. Inside was an equally messy room, and in the back was what looked like an old man sitting on the floor, facing the other direction. I thought I could see a faded golden ! mark over his head. This was our quest NPC.

"...I'm surprised Argo was able to spot him," Asuna commented. He agreed.

"This is more than just good instincts...Anyway, let's go inside."

He went to the front door and knocked twice. After a good five seconds, a brusque voice replied, "It's not locked. Come in if you want something."

This one feels like a real pain in the ass, he thought to himself as he opened the ancient door.

Chapter end.


End file.
